KMC have been crowned winners of the 2022 National Inter-departmental Sports Association football championship.
They beat Gambia Police Force in a marathon post-match penalty shootout after a 1-1 regulation time draw at QCITY Sports Complex Saturday.
The final brought to an end grueling weeks of a gutsy but high-spirited competition by workers from different institutions.
NISA president, Saikou Jarju, flanked by KMC mayor Talib Bensouda and police commissioner Lamin Colley, announced that as champions, KMC will represent The Gambia in the sub-regional workers football championship in Senegal later this year. However according to him, both finalists and their semi-final opponents, Nawec and Gambia Maritime respectively are all qualified to play in the African Workers Sports Championship to be hosted in Banjul in March 2023.
NISA presented a trophy and D15,000 donated by Commissioner Colley to KMC and D10,000 to runners-up GPF.
However, Mayor Bensouda announced a pleasant surprise for both sides. He pledged D150,000 to his victorious KMC team (fulfilling an incentive promised to the team) and D50,000 consolation to the GPF team from the municipality’s sports budget. Bensouda said he was delighted that KMC have become the only team to have won the title back-to-back, hence the decision to increase their incentive from D100,000 last year to D150,000.
Jarjue said this year’s event, the 20th edition, was very important because it came at a time when The Gambia is in the middle of preparations to host the continental tournament in a few months.
