by Arfang M.S Camara
Ebou Faye, manager of the Independence Stadium has emphasized that issues stated by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) which resulted in the ban of the stadium from hosting CAF A Type competition require major (capital) investment.
Among the reasons cited by CAF for the ban were substandard football pitch, poor and inadequate dugout areas for team officials, the lack of fixed seating for fans, floodlights, emergency medical facilities and an electronic scoreboard.
“If you are to remove the pitch and replace it with promoter grass and you want to make sure it is going to be a seated park throughout the stadium. It requires a lot of investment,” said Ebou Faye in an interview.
He continued: “Expanding the dressing room which we have improved requires a lot of investment, but CAF wants us to expand it to make it bigger to meet the international standard which also requires a lot of investment.
According to him, it also requires a lot of resources if they are to get the floodlights to meet the 1200 locks and also a standby generator for evening matches, adding that these are things that only the government which is the owner of the stadium are able to do.
He added that the ban will surely affect Gambia’s game against Chad which is now scheduled to be played in Morocco.
“My worry now is the stadium. So I started contacting the Minister of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Finance to see how we will be able to get the funds to be able to do that before June.”
