Africa-Press – Gambia. The Minister of Youth and Sports, Bakary Y. Badjie, has explained that the Gambia’s Independence Stadium remains unfit to host international matches due to its age and the high cost of meeting Confederation of African Football (CAF) standards.
Speaking at a special edition of the Mansa Kunda forum, Minister Badjie said the stadium, built four decades ago, has never undergone a major renovation to keep up with CAF’s evolving requirements.
“We never wish that Gambia plays our home game outside as it is currently happening, but this stadium is 40 years old, and in that time it has never gone through any form of renovation that would keep up with CAF requirements,” he said.
The minister noted that CAF’s current conditions are so demanding that they are “almost equivalent to building a new stadium,” which makes compliance difficult. He highlighted that the cost of renovations runs into millions of dollars, compounded by challenges in financing and technical requirements.
“So we have to do now what we needed to do before, and CAF came up with a lot of conditions that are essentially next to building a new stadium, and it is very difficult to meet. If you have to renovate it to the standard that they want, it costs millions of dollars; sometimes financing is a problem, sometimes the technical requirements are an issue,” he said.
According to Minister Badjie, most of the recent upgrades have already been approved by CAF, except for the pitch, which is still under construction. He added that work is also ongoing to secure the necessary equipment and training for staff.
“And we believe that by the end of this year, all of that will be done. In addition, we are now also taking the opportunity to fix the tracks, because the tracks were broken, so that the stadium will be for football as well as for other sports,” he said.
The minister also addressed concerns about why Gambians are often unable to watch international matches live. He explained that CAF and FIFA control broadcasting rights, which must be purchased before any game can be televised locally.
“International matches at CAF and FIFA level come with a lot of media rights, and if you don’t buy the media rights, you cannot show the international matches; that is how it happens,” he said.
In addition to sports infrastructure, Minister Badjie revealed that the government is working to transform the Social Development Fund (SDF) into an investment bank to support young people and women entrepreneurs with access to loans for business start-ups.
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