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Will The Gambia U-20 miss Congo Championship?

Just six weeks before the official kick off the 15th edition of the African Youth Championship in Congo, in which the Gambia is qualified, uncertainty is surrounding the Gambia’s participation to the championship due to financial constraints.

According to the President of the Gambia Football Association Seedy Kinteh, the accounts of the GFA are in reds and in that case they would not be able to take the team to the finals in Congo early next year.

In an interview with Pointsports yesterday, Mr, Kinteh revealed that with the current financial situation of the Gambia Football Association, they would not be capable to fly the team in Congo.

He added that a huge amount of money is needed for the preparations and participation of the team to their first ever-African Youth Championship finals.

“We have a good preparation programme for the team but the financial situation left us in limbo as we don’t ever have the money to fly the team from Banjul to Congo not talking of the preparation cost,” Mr Kinteh stressed.

He pointed out that they don’t even have the money to pay the players for their match bonuses against Mali.

GFA Boss appealed to every body to come out and support them to finance their preparations and fly the team to the finals in Congo.

“ It would a big disappointment for the all country if the team miss the Congo championship looking at our exceptional performance in the qualifiers and the type of players we have in our team,” said GFA Boss.

He called of all Gambians to come to their aid to salivate the team, as the case in hand is not a GFA issue but a national pride.

Elaborating on the team preparation, Mr Kinteh revealed that they would be playing an international friendly match on Sunday 17th December 2006 against Nigeria U-20 in Banjul and the team would leave the Gambian shores on Tuesday 19th December 2006 for Lagos to play Nigeria U-20 in the second leg of the friendly on Saturday 23rd December.

He added that the Team would move to Cameroon from Lagos on the 26th December 2006 to play Cameroon U-20 on Saturday 30th December.

“The team would return to Lagos on Monday 1st January 2007 and finally back to Banjul on the 2nd January.” he said.

Mr Kinteh pointed out that the team is expected to leave Banjul on Thursday 4th January 2007 to South Africa where they are expected to undergo a two-week training camp and play series of test matches and finally fly to Congo on the 18th January for the championship.

“We can only do this preparation if the money is available but with the current financial situation this would not be possible,” Mr. Kinteh concluded.