The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has decided to ban the Gambai’s only Stadium for failure to meet the required standard to host CAF A Type competition.
This according to reports was communicated to the Gambia Football Federation via a letter dated 16th February 2022. This unfortunate suspension means Gambia’s match against Chad scheduled on the 29th March 2022 for the preliminary round qualifiers of the Africa cup of Nations will not be hosted at the Stadium.
This suspension follows series of warnings from CAF who has continuously been raising concerns over the bad conditions of the Gambia’s Independence Stadium.
CAF is now requesting for something far more challenging from a country that has been struggling to even do basic mentainence at the Stadium. Amongst the requests of CAF includes, Re-grassing of the football ground, adjust of the flood lights with 1200 lux and a standby generator for evening matches, modern first aid and treatment facilities for players and officials.
CAF also demanded seats for individual spectators; equipping the media facilities.
They further added that the stadium is old and outdated in most of the existing facilities and lack multiple CAF stadium requirements.
There has never been any major maintenance and rehabilitation of the facilities since it was built in 1983.
The Gambia government must comply with the request of CAF before the Gambia national team could be allowed to play their home games at the Stadium. For the time being, The Gambia is without a CAF standard football ground.
