GFF awaits venue from Moroccan Federation
Morocco’s Royal Football Federation (FRMF) has approved the Gambia Football Federation’s request to host her AFCON 2024 qualifying match against Mali in Morocco.
According to sources from the Gambia Football Federation, the Moroccan FA has notified Gambia of its approval to host the CAN qualifier against Mali on March 26, but it is yet to state the city or stadium where it would be played.
Our source said the initial plan to go back to Senegal for the match could not happen because the Latdior Stadium in Thies where a previous CAN qualifier, Gambia against South Sudan was played, is itself not approved by Caf to host matches. “The new stadium in Diamniadio, the Abdoulaye Wade stadium, is very expensive because it is built and run by private partnership business which charges for services. Even the Senegalese Federation pays to host matches there. So the only alternative is to try Morocco and thankfully they have agreed to host the match for Gambia,” our source said.
Morocco and Gambia enjoy a strong football relations and the North African nation has hosted the various national teams of the Gambia in the last five years.
Meanwhile, the Moroccan FA has confirmed that in response to a request from a number of African football federations, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation agreed to host three matches in Morocco in March as a part of the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The matches to be hosted in Morocco will include the matches of Togo vs Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau vs Nigeria, and Gambia vs Mali.
The upcoming AFCON was scheduled to take place in summer 2023, but it was moved to January 2024 due to weather concerns in the Ivory Coast.
