With just four months to go before it leaves office, the outgoing Gambia Football Federation (GFF) leadership, romantically called Team- Kaba, is not leaving anything to chances.
Confirmed sources told The Standard that it has started a process to back a candidate from its rank to contest for president in the elections in August.
According to a senior source with the GFF management, Team–Kaba is working on a consensus between two aspirants, Kemo Ceesay, until recently the finance director, and Musa Jammeh the head of security and a serving military officer. Team- Kaba, our source went on, is hopeful that a consensus would be reached between the two so that one of them will contest instead of the two contesting against each other or against other candidates .
Our source would not confirm or deny a widely held belief that Team-Kaba prefers Musa Jammeh to Kemo Ceesay. “I do not want to go into semantics. I am thinking that there would be consensus,” our source said.
However independent observers tipped The Standard that Mr Kemo Ceesay has categorically stated that he will not abandon his plan to contest.
“Kemo has told the GFF management and other stakeholders longtime ago that as long as current president Lamin Kaba Bajo is not contesting, he will not step aside for anybody in the August elections,” one observer said.
Another observer said from the look of things, Kemo Ceesay enjoys wider support among stakeholders with most clubs and regional associations vowing to support him. “The outgoing executive is weary of Mr Ceesay’s presidency and seems to be more comfortable with Mr Jammeh,” our observer alleged. But a GFF insider has denied that.
Meanwhile outside the Team- Kaba camp, there are two other aspirants, SadIbou Kamaso of Team Restore Confidence, and new comer Amadou Jaiteh. Mr Kamaso, himself a former member of Team- Kaba is contesting for the second time after his first challenge in 2022. His campaign for a total cleaning and modernisation of Gambian football resonates more with the outside football lovers than critical stakeholders and he would have to work harder to attract more support than he mustered four years ago.
Our source said Mr Kamaso seems to enjoy support from among government circles but it is not clear whether as a critical financer of national teams, government will use that as leverage to project Kamaso.
As for new comer Amadou Jaiteh, a former GFF staff, the mission will be harder to find a foothold solid enough to ruffle feathers in this election.
