By: Lamin Fadera
The President of the Gunjur Sports Committee, Dembo Touray, has expressed his disappointment with the Gambia Football Federation for failing to fulfill its promise to rehabilitate the Nyamina football field in the community of Gunjur in the Kombo South district over the past four years.
“I am frustrated right now, the GFF has promised us many times and failed us, and the GFF field project is a failure, in my opinion. Since 2018 the GFF has been making promises, and they cannot fulfill their promises; we follow them to give us answers as to when our field will be ready. However, if we write a letter to them, they never acknowledge receipt of our letter or respond to you,” Dembo Touray told TAT.
When asked whether they know how much money the Gambia Football Federation will spend on their ground to rehabilitate the community football field, Mr. Touray responded in the affirmative.
‘To be honest with you, as the president of the Gunjur sports committee, I don’t know how much will be spent on our football field; we have asked the GFF about it they never tell us anything. So we requested for the documents to know how much they will spend in our ground but still now they didn’t tell us the amount.” Touray said.
President Touray told the Alkamba Times that during the past GFF election, a delegation from the football house came to Gunjur while they were canvassing for votes.
‘I was not notified when they were coming to Gunjur until the very day when someone called me to tell me that these people say I inform you that they will be here by 2 pm; by that time, I was in a vehicle on my way to Serekunda to work. So I told them to go ahead with the meeting. I was informed from the meeting they requested to provide the design of the Nyamina football field, which was provided to them within 24 hours because they were campaigning and needed the vote of Gunjur United, the disappointed Touray said.
The Gunjur Nyamina football field is among the many grounds the Gambia Football Federation promised to rehabilitate after they secured funding of 1.6 million dollars in 2018 from the FIFA forward 2.0 funds allocated for member association.
Up to 2 million US dollars is available for member associations to use on projects from 2019 to 2022. Cycle for projects tailored according to the member association’s approved contract of agreed objectives, particularly related to football infrastructure (e.g., pitches, technical centers, training grounds, stadiums, and headquarters).
Projects may include other development areas provided that the member association has at least one stadium/pitch allowing international matches to be played, suitable association headquarters, and a functioning technical center FIFA forward 2.0
