Africa-Press – Gambia. …Calls it milestone as critics question cost and quality
The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) over the weekend inaugurated a mini stadium at Wuli Nyakoi Kerewan constructed with funding from Saudi Arabia.
The project cost D14 million and it is the first ever decent sports infrastructure in that part of the country.
The project consists of a football pitch, secured by a 3-metre perimeter fence, and sustained by an 8-inch borehole and an automated sprinkler system to ensure year-round excellence.
The 200-square-metre facility also houses two-dressing rooms, a medical room, match officials’ office, toilets and showers and an administrative block for the Regional Football Association.
GFF president Lamin Kaba Bajo said the project is a realisation of a vision in his institution’s National Football Development Plan which aims at ensuring that every corner of the country feels the heartbeat of the beautiful game.
He thanked the Saudi Arabia Football Federation for its generous funding and partnership.
Mr Bajo commended the project designers, Master plan Architects and Engineers and contractors Kalifa Bayo & Sons and Jula Kunda Construction Company, for quality service.
He counted the mini-stadium as part of the gains registered by his administration which also include a historic back-to-back qualifications for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), the rise of youth teams on the continental stage, and the unprecedented development of the domestic leagues. “And now with this project, for the first time in our history, the provincial gap is closing,” Bajo said.
Criticisms
Meanwhile critics of the GFF have cast doubts over the cost of the project as claimed. They said the quality of the facilities in the project does not match the D14million claimed by the GFF. Many fans angrily raged on social media demanding an explanation and an investigation.
Reaction
The Standard confronted GFF over these concerns and obtained the following response from Football House: ”Certain people who are trying to downplay the huge progress made for the first in the URR are either doing it out of ignorance or malice. They either do not know the actual cost of building football stadiums which can run into millions of dollars. In Nyakoi we sought an got only $200,000.00 and it is used for the 1st phase i.e. grass pitch, perimeter fencing, dressing rooms, offices and water system (borehole and sprinkler system). Such unsubstantiated comments can only unfairly obscure the tremendous work done to access such international support and risk harming the country’s future opportunities to access support.”
