By Modou Lamin Beyai,
The government of the Gambia through the National Sports Council (NSC) has decided to lift the suspension on executive members of the Gambia Football Federation (GFF) after a two-week standoff.
The NSC announced the lifting of the suspension at a press conference held on Wednesday afternoon where the chairman of the council, Borri Darboe, announced that the government will continue with investigations on the GFF despite reversing its decision.
The report from the investigations he says will be submitted to the president of the Republic of The Gambia, FIFA and before being made public.
Darboe said at the press conference that: “Upon the arrival of the Hon. Minister of Youth and Sports from his official overseas mission, the Minister on Monday the 27th of November, 2017 personally engaged the FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura and the FIFA African Representative, Mr. Jeroum to find a solution to the standoff between National Sports Council and Gambia Football Federation”.
He said talks are currently on-going between the two parties after the intervention of the country’s president Adama Barrow who have asked them to lift the suspension on the officials.
“The President showed great concern over the matter and asked the Minister to weigh-in the interest of the country’s athletes and avoid a possible suspension by FIFA.”
“NSC has received a lot of complaints and protests forwarded to us from clubs and regions which cannot be left unattended to. As a regulatory body, we cannot afford to leave the aggrieved helpless. We will continue with our investigations and a report will be submitted to the president of the Republic of The Gambia, FIFA and made public.”
It could be recalled that the NSC two weeks ago announced the suspension of the executive of the GFF pending an investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement, corruption and match fixing.
This was followed by a warning letter from FIFA giving the NSC until last Monday to lift the suspension or the country would face global sanction.
