Former Gambia football legendary figure, Alh Ousman Basi Conateh has died at the age of 80 on Saturday. He was laid to rest on Sunday 5 April.
He had previously served as President of the then Gambia Football Association (GFA) from 1993 until his voluntary retirement in 2001 when he completed two terms in the Presidency.
Fisco, as he was popularly known, was born on 1st November 1937 in Banjul, The Gambia. A household name in The Gambia and around the sub-region, he was a young and energetic smart boy who will later become an icon in Gambian football.
The founding father of Wallidan FC attended St. Augustine’s High School and had a professional training in merchandise, marketing and entrepreneurship at the United Africa Company (UAC) in Lagos, Nigeria, where he was later made the manager of Kingsway Supermarket, one of the subsidiaries of UAC.
He was also the Administrative Manager of The Gambia Fisheries Ltd and the sole owner and Chief Executive Officer of the National Partnership Enterprises (NPE) Sea Food Processing Company and sole owner and chairman of O.B. Trawlers Agency.
His unflinching efforts in raising football in The Gambia during his stint as its president was reciprocated when he was bestowed with the rare reverence of the honorary life presidency of the national football governing body at a 2001 Congress and remains so until his death over the weekend. Fisco never played football though but has always been a keen admirer and in 1969, through one of his many philanthropic gestures, founded what is regarded as one of the most successful stories in Gambian football, the birth of Wallidan Football Club. It was in the summer of that year when some boys sought assistance to form a football club and gave the birth of the Blues.
A baron of sports and football in particular, an athlete during his youth days and later a seasoned administrator par excellence, he was a devastating cricketer and an ex-national cycling champion. A true entrepreneur in all definitions, the former legend has done so much for the development of sports, particularly football in The Gambia and beyond and has impacted positively on the lives of many.
The founding father of Gambia’s most successful football club, Wallidan, Fisco has won several awards in and outside of the country. In 1986, he was decorated with the prestigious honor of the Insignia of Member of the Republic of The Gambia (MRG); Officer of the National Order of the Republic of Cote d’ Ivoire in 1995; inducted into the Hall of Fame as National Cycling Champion, International Cricketer.
For the outstanding contribution to the development of youth and sport in 1999; he also won the Millennium Award for Excellence by The Gambia National Olympic Committee in 2000 and in 2001, he was honored with the Achievement Award for Excellence by The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Insignia of the National Order of the Republic of The Gambia (ORG). In 2007, he was made Commander of the National Order of the Republic of Cote d’ Ivoire.
On January 4th 2020, the late Alh OB was decorated by the Gambia Football Federation with a Life Time Achievement Award at its first ever Football Recognition Night. Credited for his selfless services to not only Football but lifes, livelihood and entrepreneurship, the late Fisco will ever be remembered by the Gambia, Africa and the world at large.
The former NPE Chief Executive was also in December 2019 decorated by the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) with a Lifetime Achievement award reposed on him as one of the country’s eldest and respected men of repute and philanthropy in both social and entrepreneurship. The GCCI award will be the second for the Chamber to confer on the former GFA. Until his death over the weekend, the late OB Conateh was the Chairman of the GFF Legends Identification Committee.