26/02/2025
THE ADMINISTRATION OF FOOTBALL IN THE GAMBIA; 1975 to 1985
The year 1975 was when I became very active in Gambian football with Real De Banjul as a young diehard supporter who was allowed to attend team practices at the northern part of the beautiful white sandy beaches of Banjul known as ABC. I was welcomed with open arms by the management of the team and do recall, the Secretary General at that time, a slender man from Lancaster Street named Gassa who intimated to me that he was grooming me to be the next Secretary General for Real De Banjul. It was very humbling indeed but it never happened because, in 1978, I would jump ship and join an upcoming talented high school football team that had just begun association football, the Young Africans Football Club.
With my affiliation with Real De Banjul, I saw firsthand how football was being run under Alhagi Momodou Cadi Cham, who was the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports and doubled as president of the football association, a rarity by every standard. However that was the order of the day and everyone went with it; but football was not moving in the right direction. The majority of the teams were unorganized mostly due to the lack of resources and poor management which ultimately led to the demise of legendary teams like Adonis, Black Stars, Freezings, Arans and Young Lions. The football association itself was not operating effectively due to many problems which had led to factions; prominent among which is the famous court case involving the two faction football associations, one led by Cham and the other, by a London trained lawyer who would rise to become a Judge in the Gambian court systems, Mr SK Obrien Coker. History has documented that the fighting between the two groups had to be settled by the then Chief Justice of The Gambia, a British legal luminary, Sir Phillip Bridges, and this did not help the game.
In 1976, change came through the appointment of Gambia's finest trained surgeon, Dr Ebrima Malick Samba. Partnered with a fine man of the great integrity, Anthony LR Blain, Uncle MS Njie and Alhagi Matarr Sillah football started to see some changes and development. Dr Samba's first move was to instill discipline in the FA so as to restore the integrity of the game and, indeed, all teams cooperated and became partners in the new beginning. Samba would go on to re-organize the first division by trimming down the teams in the first division to six which was a welcomed initiative since some of the teams in the first division under the previous GFA had no resources which, at times, led to the cancellation of games. He would put in place a solid second division championship with the two top teams gaining promotion to the first division to replace the bottom two in the first. This bold and revolutionary move, though unpopular in some quarters was quite monumental in improving the competition standard and ultimate development of the game. Samba also brought about the Zonal football championship which was first organized in 1974 during the commemoration of the 50th birthday celebration of Gambia's first President Alhagi Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara and the first National Youth Week. The lesson learned from the youth week zonal football tournament was that it was a way to discover rural talent since every part of the country had to field teams and he wanted to see this tournament continue. In 1977, in commemoration of The Gambia's Independence celebrations, zonal football became a permanent part of the national football schedule, which associations keep to this day. The Gambia national team was re-organized and many old mainstays for many years were retired from the team and a younger, much more talented breed was added to the squad which led to immediate results at sub-regional tournaments.
After one year, Dr Ebrima Samba and the team made way for Mr Boukarry O Fofana, a shy, tall and handsome Hausa man who was also a Justice of the Peace. Fofana was blessed to have the best Secretary General ever in Gambian football, Mr Momodou M Dibba, who today serves as the President of The Gambia National Olympic Committee. Alongside Mr. Mustapha M Ngum, Vice President, Alhagi Babou Cisse, Mr. Edmonson Shonobi and Mr. Alieu Mboge, the FA stuck with the plan of action put in place by the previous administration and good results began to show instantly. In order to make the league more competitive, they engaged the private sector and institutions, like The Gambia National Insurance Corporation, Rothmans Kingsize, Guinness, Banjul Breweries, Papa Njie Construction, Saihou Ceesay and Sons Ltd and Gambia Commercial Development Banks, that answered the call and contributed immensely to the game.
In 1981, the association introduced the third division which gave the chance to teams from outside the capital to compete in the national football league. Brikama had Santangba FC, Lamin Bombada FC, Serrekunda had Farimang which would later become Ndanaan, Linguere FC, Sukuta had Sofanyama FC and Bakau had Dagudan FC. Banjul, the capital, had the likes of Roots FC, Blue Diamonds FC, Tesito FC, Swallows FC and Hammers FC. The competition in this division was as interesting and competitive as expected and it became a source for recruiting for many teams from the premiere division, but most importantly it was from this division that then Assistant Director of Sports, now Gambia's High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Cherno Barra Touray would build the first Gambian under 17 national football team.
The Gambian national team continued to see major changes with two former internationals, MI Kabba Jallow and Mass Axi G*i appointed to manage the team. The results were instantaneous, starting first in Guinea Bissau in 1978 with a modest performance at the Zone Two Amilca Cabral Football tournament which put all our neighbours on notice that never again in the history of Gambian football will a national newspaper run a headline; A BAG FULL OF GOALS, as did the Accra Daily Graphic after they beat The Gambia in Accra in 1977. Jallow and G*i extended their recruiting strategy beyond Denton Bridge and landed great talents from Serrekunda and Bakau. Lamin Owens was a sweeper par excellence, Babou Saho became a great goalie along with one of the finest half backs that ever suited for The Gambia, a Bakau native named Francis Commy Owens. The Gambia Eleven, as it was known then, will become finalists at a tournament in Liberia and that was the beginning of many great things in Gambian football during the ten year period covered by this book. The team continued to do well, but not without problems and distractions.
Indeed, several problems with running the national team were caused by outside influence. It is believed that the powerful, in some football quarters referred to as the MAFIA, interfered with the selection process, while that is still up for conjecture, there could have been some truth to it, given that some of these team owners who wanted to see their own players suit up were in charge of the welfare of the national team from a financial standpoint because the government was unable to meet the financial demands of an up and coming national team. I would assume today that they were putting their mouth where their money was.
