Newly crowned champions of Gambian football, Real de Banjul, will not compete in the African Club Champions League, a club official confirmed to The Standard yesterday.
In the wake of a new rule by Caf which requires champions league clubs to have a female team as well, many are in no doubt that Gambian clubs cannot meet that criteria and certainly not Real which was poised to win the league.
However, according to Bakary Jammeh, senior official of the Real de Banjul, Caf rule aside, Real, like many other less-endowed clubs in Africa, does not have the financial muscle to compete in the capital-intensive champions league.
“The brutal truth is that only a few clubs in the continent have the financial means to compete in the champions league and that is why many from less-endowed leagues just have to forgo it and concentrate on getting their players in the transfer market. That is what we are doing at Real. We cannot be compared with TP Mazembe, Wydad Casablanca, Asante Kotoko or Al Ahly FC. The gap in terms of financial strength is huge,” he said.
Real de Banjul won their 13th title last week after a nine-year waiting. The club is one of the most organised if not richest in The Gambia and certainly with the biggest export portfolio of players abroad in recent years
