By John Mendy
Gambia’s reigning champions Ports Authority will have to make best use of home advantage to get past Al Hilal of Sudan in a tie leading to the lucrative group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup next Sunday.
The two legs that stand to shape their season will go ahead despite GPA’s Champions league appeal case on Congolese AS Vita’s player Francisco Ondo Obama who is accused of using different dates of birth certificates he registered with AS Vita Club and his country of Birth – Equatorial Guinea.
Ports will meanwhile officially head to camp today Monday 3rd April at the Friendship Hostel in Bakau ahead of arrival of the Sudanese premier League Champions in Banjul on Sunday 9th April at the independence stadium for the first leg before making their first ever trip to Sudan a week later in the city of Omdurman for the away game.
In between though the ‘Ferry Boys’ will on Wednesday play its domestic league rescheduled game against title chasers Armed Forces, just four days to the CAF Confederation cup game.
Should Ports Authority go through, they would cash a colossal CAF subvention of 275,000 US dollars (equivalent to D12, 335, 000 or Twelve million, three hundred and thirty-five thousand dalasi), just half of what they’ve missed out when the team got eliminated from the CAF Champions League 2nd round qualifiers by Congolese AS Vita Club 3-1 on aggregate while Sudanese Al Hilal trounced Mauritian AS Port-Louis 5-2 on aggregate in the confederation cup to seal a playoff round tie.
