{"id":12379,"date":"2022-03-16T19:17:18","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T19:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace"},"modified":"2022-03-16T20:04:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T20:04:43","slug":"scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace","title":{"rendered":"SCORPION SAUL MARREH CALLS STADIUM BAN \u2018A DISGRACE\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>The Gambia midfielder Sulayman Marreh says a ban on his country\u2019s national stadium hosting international games \u2018is a big disgrace\u2019. The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has said that the Independence Stadium in Bakau does not meet its standards to host international matches.<\/p>\n

It means the Scorpions, who reached the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year, will have to play the home leg of their preliminary qualifier for the 2023 Nations Cup finals against Chad on 29 March in Morocco.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge disappointment not to be able to play at home after our historic (Nations Cup) qualification \u2013 and now again against Chad,\u201d Marreh, 26, told BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the people responsible should look at themselves because this is a big disgrace for Gambian football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they can fix it as soon as possible because the Gambian people don\u2019t deserve this.\u201d The side last played at the Independence Stadium in March 2021 when they beat Angola 1-0 to qualify for their first ever Nations Cup finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking forward to play in front of our fans after a long time without playing at home,\u201d The Gambia captain Omar Colley told BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they\u2019ve also been waiting for this moment but none of us are in control of this situation. It\u2019s a shame that we have to play away especially coming back from a great tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully they\u2019ll fix the stadium as soon as possible for us to reunite with our fans and start playing at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters had been looking forward to finally reuniting with their heroes having missed the opportunity when the team\u2019s return from the Nations Cup in Cameroon was disrupted with 11 players returning to their clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would\u2019ve been fantastic to play after our Afcon with the support of our fans,\u201d coach Tom Saintfiet said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially knowing that our Gambian fans are looking forward to seeing their heroes, their players and to celebrate them and support them and it\u2019s a very sad situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying in Cameroon against Chad and playing in Morocco against Chad is naturally a very strange situation.\u201d Warned in 2019<\/p>\n

The Independence Stadium is the country\u2019s only international stadium and the facility, which was built in 1983, has never undergone any major maintenance.<\/p>\n

The general manager of the venue, Ebou Faye, says they knew a ban from Caf had been a possibility since 2019. \u201cIt was disappointing but we knew that it was coming,\u201d Faye told BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround 2019 when Caf came up with their stadium must-have requirements, we shared it with the government. The government did give us some money to improve some areas, but not everything was done.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. The Gambia midfielder Sulayman Marreh says a ban on his country\u2019s national stadium hosting international games \u2018is a big disgrace\u2019. The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has said that the Independence Stadium in Bakau does not meet its standards to host international matches. It means the Scorpions, who reached the quarter-finals of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[2355,2361,5292,260,5291],"class_list":["post-12379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-disgrace","tag-gambia","tag-scorpion"],"yoast_head":"\nSCORPION SAUL MARREH CALLS STADIUM BAN \u2018A DISGRACE\u2019 - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Gambia midfielder Sulayman Marreh says a ban on his country\u2019s national stadium hosting international games \u2018is a big ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SCORPION SAUL MARREH CALLS STADIUM BAN \u2018A DISGRACE\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Gambia midfielder Sulayman Marreh says a ban on his country\u2019s national stadium hosting international games \u2018is a big ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-16T19:17:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-16T20:04:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/03\/img-623242bda3831.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1081\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"SCORPION SAUL MARREH CALLS STADIUM BAN \u2018A DISGRACE\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-16T19:17:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-16T20:04:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace\"},\"wordCount\":471,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/03\/img-623242bda3831.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"DISGRACE\u2019\",\"Gambia\",\"SCORPION\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/scorpion-saul-marreh-calls-stadium-ban-a-disgrace\",\"name\":\"SCORPION SAUL MARREH CALLS STADIUM BAN \u2018A DISGRACE\u2019 - 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