The Gambia Football Federation like most other football associations in Africa continues to attract tens of millions of dalasis of financial assistance as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The latest package was announced by the Confederation of African Football, CAF. The African football authority declared it will provide financial support to member associations totaling USD 16.2 Million to assist them mitigate challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each member association will be entitled to USD 300,000 which is about D15 million.
This latest financial assistance now means that the GFF will receive a total of USD1.8M, about D90 million from Fifa and Caf as Covid-19 relief packages.
In addition, the GFF has already received D25 million from Fifa and D10 million from Caf as their normal annual assistance unconditionally released to them recently as their operational and other costs.
The GFF announced this week that it will have to call a general meeting of members to decide how to spend the D75 million coming from Fifa, D25 million of which must go to women’s football.
Already clubs and other members have called a judicious distribution of the money to support them from the effects of Covid-19. “We are going to resist any suggestion or intention by the GFF to fund projects from the money without any tangible explanations about what happened to the many elaborate projects they have designed and sought funding for. So much money has come and is coming to this Federation and it is time stakeholders stand up and ask questions,” one senior member of a first division club told The Standard.
