Local Selection to Face Liberia July 24th

The Daily Observer (Banjul)

Babucarr Camara

12 July 2011

A selection of local based players of The Gambia will play Liberia in a friendly international to commemorate the closure of the National League and the celebrations of the country’s Independence anniversary on the 24th of July in Monrovia. This was revealed to Observer Sports by the president of the Gambia Football Association, Seedy MB Kinteh.

The match will be played on Sunday the 24th July, 2011 at the Samuel Kanyon Sports Complex at 4:00 pm. As part of the invitation, the Liberian Football Association will provide air tickets for 25 persons, accommodation and board, feeding and the local transportation of the Gambian delegation. Speaking to Observer Sports at his office at the GFA House in Kanifing on Monday, Kinteh said the game will go a long way in helping the country put together a decent local-based team in their quest to host the Armical Cabral Zone II football championship at the end of the year for the first time since 1997.

“We want to put together a decent local national team for our future competitions because we cannot always depend on the foreign-based players. In fact currently we are studying possibilities to host Zone II towards the end of this year. So this will go a long way in helping us prepare in earnest for the championship (provided The Gambia ends up hosting it). The last edition of Zone II was supposed to be hosted by Mauritania (in 2009) but the tournament was called off due to a military coup ‘d’état in that country,” he said.

The GFA prexy also revealed that a total of 26 players scouted by Coach Paul Put are currently training at the Brikama Box Bar Mini-Stadium every morning under the watchful eyes of Coach Lamin Sarr and Lamin Sambou in the absence of the head coach who is yet to return from his native country, Belgium. According to him, the Belgian coach will still be in charge when the team faces Liberia. 18 players will be selected from the 26 currently on training and a total of seven officials will make the trip.

AllAfrica – All the Time