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Gambia News : Gambia’s Under-17 squad leaves for training in UK amidst controversy

The team’s departure has however not gone without some controversy. In the first place there was the decision of the Gambia Football Association (GFA) management not to disclose the names of those who failed the FIFA-sanctioned MRI age tests.

Some people have also questioned the decision to have the final round of the side’s engagements against teams in a temperate zone country like England with their last encounter there taking place shortly before they take on their first challenge in the Nigerian port city of Calabar and its tropic climate.

Another question being posed is why they risked waiting so late to do the age tests in nearby Senegal — just across the border —when they could have realized that some squad members, including key players, might not pass it.

Perhaps not to cause any undue alarm, the GFA refused to divulge the results of the tests on the grounds that it is not for public consumption and in order to protect the integrity of the players, said Jammeh Bojang, GFA Secretary General.

So even when Coach Tarik Slaggy presented a 26-member squad for the training in the UK, all one can go by was that a whole set of 11 players were excluded from the Algeria squad. It was therefore the general conclusion amongst the public that those players must have failed the age test.

This stand of the football body has angered many of the team’s supporters here who claim lack of respect for their ownership of the national team. Some have even threatened to hold back any further financial backing for the national team because of that.

The list of those dropped totaled 11 from the 18-man squad who clinched the African championships for the Scorpions in Algeria.

On the preliminary list of 26 players for the UK training are three overseas-based players ; striker Ebrima Bojang, winger Saihou Gassama and defender Lamin Samateh.

Therefore, the 26 players who traveled to the UK are mainly new members of the squad which will further be reduced to 21.

After a series of test matches scheduled with Chelsea, Reading, Portsmouth, Tottenham Hotspur and Leceister City football academies, the team will return to Banjul on October 17.

On October 25, the Baby Scorpions who are in Group C, will face their counterparts from Iran after which they will go into action against Holland on October 28 and Columbia on October 31.