CAF bans Gambia’s Independence Stadium from hosting Int’l games -

By Arfang M.S. Camara

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has banned the Gambia national football team from playing international matches at the Independence Stadium.

The Gambia is among 20 African countries banned from using their national stadiums to host international games because they failed to meet CAF’s “minimum requirements” for football stadiums.

“CAF has decided to ban the Independence Stadium for failure to meet the required standard to host CAF A Type competition in a letter dated 16th February 2022. As such, our (Scorpions) match against Chad scheduled on the 29th March 2022 for the preliminary round qualifiers of the Africa cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 will not be hosted in the Stadium,” Independence Stadium and Friendship Hotel said in a statement on Facebook.

Among the reasons cited by CAF for the ban were substandard football pitch, poor and inadequate dugout areas for team officials, the lack of fixed seating for fans, floodlights, emergency medical facilities and an electronic scoreboard.

The countries banned or have at least a stadium banned from hosting international matches are Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Eswatini, Eritrea, Lesotho etc.

Member countries without any approved venues were asked to find neutral venues where they will stage their home matches.

Below are the list of Stadiums banned from hosting International Matches.