But what the jury and the authorities failed to do at the time was to complete the cycle of giving names for the other international football teams below the national team such as the Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23. One reason was junior football championship was not that fashionable, in fact at the time, non-existent.
Now though, the best part of The Gambia’s history in football is the chapter on youth football which produced international titles and eye-catching appearances in this decade. Yet there does not seem to be commonality in the names given to the youth teams. Sometime ago, in my years at the Daily Observer, we floated without much attention from the football authorities an idea to call the Under-20s, the Young Scorpions, the Under-17s the Baby Scorpions, the Under-23s the Darling Scorpions. A starry-eyed commentator scolded us suggesting instead that Darling should go with all the teams, for example Darling Young Scorpions Darling Baby Scorpions, etc. To that we said no, no! That is clumsy. Because already we at the Observer accorded the senior team that unique accolade of The Gallant Scorpions when they made a heroic performance against Ghana in Banjul in November 1994. Again without much attention from the football authorities, we made the case that the Under-23 be called the Darling Scorpions. Again, like the GFA of the ’80s, we too left out the girls, because women’s football was not in the menu in The Gambia then. Now though, we have even been to a women’s World Cup. So how do we call our girls? Lady Scorpions? But here too there are both a senior and a junior team. So which Scorpions should go by which tag? Join us in this debate by emailing your thoughts to [email protected].
By Lamin Cham
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