By: Binta Jaiteh
The National Assembly member of Janjanbureh Omar Jammeh has challenged the Minister of Youth and Sports Bakary Badjie to engage Gambia Football federation over regularization of regional football congress.
NAM Jammeh raised this concern on Tuesday during the select committee on Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports meeting with the Ministry and its satellite institutions to discuss their budget execution for the first quarter of 2025.
He also urged the sport council to resolve issues that emerge from upper river region and central river region interms of having GFF and RFA flowing their own laws in imposing on our young people interms of developing sport in the areas.
According to him, their are lot of issues going wrong with regards to GFF. “We cannot have institutions who don’t respect there own laws like the GFF. Section 25 of their own constitution what it talks about congress and AGM they are not doing it,” he argued.
“As a sport council you have an oversight over them. We have to engage them before problem arises. If young people are going to court except anything and what we are seeing is that they are sabotaging government and the ministry. We recommended the ministry of youth and sport to adjust on their engagement with GFF interms of getting them to complement government efforts more especially around sporting structural development in the country,” said NAM Jammeh.
“We want the government through the national sport council to do the needful in sanitizing the issues that are emerging in our football domain.”
He also emphasized on the reform of janjanbureh youth center. “The European Union supported Janjabureh football center, Basse and Basang,” he added.
They have concerns about youth center more especially janjanbureh. This is why i brought up the matter to the youth council so that they can leverage that responsibility to the management committee to be able to regularize staffing at the center where their is need.
Minister of Youth and Sports Bakary Badjie replied that every institution in the country is subjected to the laws of the country whether you are private or government. We normally should respond questions on their behalf but when it comes to irregularities we see them.
He said GFF is an independent body but that doesn’t mean they are not under the control of the ministry when it come to their own ruled and issues that affects the Gambias. FIFA has a regulation to allow federations to operate independently but that is related to their association and membership.
“We are bringing the sport bill and the youth bill in the next parliamentary session in which a lot of issues will be addressed,” he disclosed.