By: Omar Jatta

The Gambia Football Federation’s President, Mr Lamin Kaba Bajo has revealed plans to heighten the promotion of women’s football in The Gambia, as part his efforts to put the women’s game on a par with their male counterparts. Mr Bajo made the revelations at a ceremony held in the Federation’s headquarters in Kanifing, where each of the eleven women’s teams in the first and second divisions were presented with football materials including full sets of jerseys, football boots, socks, guards, balls and bibs.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Mr Bajo argued that the constraints facing the development of the men’s football in The Gambia, should not be an excuse to delay the growth of the women’s football.

“Women’s football has created a new impetusn in our national game and that empowering them will mean building a milestone for generations” said Mr Bajo

“We are aware of the challenges faced by women’s football, which is all the more why these materials are provided to you, as it is not easy to maintain a football club with all the cost involved.

“The materials are of high quality and expensive products from FIFA, and should be maintained with good care,” he added.

The GFF boss added that the reserve materials that remained undistributed will be kept in a safe place for the benefit of all the teams including the national side, first and second division teams as well as the regional teams.

Women’s football in the Gambia has taken a great stride and its no longer a surprise for the national federation’s head to anticipate pushing it to similar heights as that of the men’s game in the country. Something that would have been laughed at in just over a decade ago. Back then the women’s football was so overlooked, it was unheard of in some parts of the World not to talk of Africa or Gambia in this regard. But since it’s introduction to the continent in the late 90s to the early 2000, it has come a long way right across the continent and in particular The Gambia, who has been taken part in organised women’s football since 1998, but had struggled to get more involved in FIFA recognised matches, in fact the team is currently unranked by FIFA, having not had the required number of recognised international games to get into the ranking system.

Having said that, The Gambia’s under-17 women’s team had competed in the Confederation of African Football qualifiers for the 2012 FIFA U-17 World Cup, held in Azerbaijan, beating Sierra Leone’s Women’s team 3-0 in Banjul and 4-3 in Makeni, which set them up in the final rounds of the qualifier against Tunia’s Women’s team, whom they also beat over two legs, following a 1-0 home victory and 2-1 in Tunisia, which booked their place in the tournament in Azerbaijan. Where they were grouped alongside France, North Korea and the United States. The Gambia finished bottom of the group, with only the 2 goals from the 10-2 defeat against France. However, despite the set back at the tournament it was a good experience for The Gambian women and was with a great pride to have made it that far.

As part it’s efforts to push women’s football further on the sports ladder in The Gambia, the National Football Federation headed by Bajo, is steming up efforts to support and promote the women’s game in the country through international partnerships and projects fronted by the world football governing body FIFA.

We have witnessed this recently with the arrival of the leading team in the Scottish Women’s League first division, the Glasgow girls FC to The Gambia on a week long visit, which invoved 22 players, 4 coaches and a media officer for the trip. The team played a number of friendly football matches with some of the clubs in The Gambia Womens’ Football League division, including champions: interior, and the women national team, Red Scorpions.

The trip was organised through the football development organisation: Adventure Kicks and hosted in partnership with the Gambian Football Federation (GFF) and Gilkock Football Academy in Brufut.

The trip was a part of the plans to help raise the profile of FIFA’s campaign #liveyourgoals recently launched in The Gambia, with FIFA hoping to have over 45 million women participating in football by the 2019 women’s world cup.

As the guardians of the game, the FIFA organisation has been redoubling it’s efforts in promoting women’s football Worldwide. Which is aimed at building the capacity of female football, with the overall objective of developing the game on a global scale, especially in Africa, where the Women’s game faces several challenges, including limited access to education, inequalities and human rights abuses targeting women and above all poverty and the lack of funding. And for this reasons, the organisation is operating alongside confederations and their member associations to harness the true potential of women in football and to increase female opportunities on and off the pitch through major competitions, events, campaigns and developmental programmes.

To help Federations and member associations overcome the main challenges of developing women’s football, the organisation has been embarking on various projectsis including finacial supports and technical trainings, to give women players, coaches, referees and officials, the opportunity to become actively involved in football. It’s also helping to popularise the game by increasing public awareness and conducting information campaigns as well as overcoming social and cultural obstacles for women with the ultimate aim of improving women’s standing in society.

Through this projects, in December 2014, The Gambia Football Federation collaborated with FIFA in organising a technical training course for 26 participants at the GFF Technical Training Center in Yundum, which included players from the national team, coaches, technicians amongst others. The training was aimed at accelerating the participation of girls and women in grassroots football in the country.

A year on, the two have combined yet again to pursue their quest to boost womens football in the small West African country, by presenting material support for the various women’s teams in the country including the national team, a gesture which should go a long way in giving The gambia womwn’s football a push in the right direction.