The Gambia’s Sports minister , Henry Gomez was in Germany, in search for a new national team coach for the Gambia.
According to the Point newspaper, Gomez, who was formerly resident in Germany before becoming a minister in 2017, travelled to his adopted country to look for a new coach to replace current coach, Sang Ndong, who was recently appointed as the Technical Director of the team whilst also doubling as the head coach. However, many believe his new appointment is a sign his days as coach are numbered, and at some point he will be relieved to take full charge of the development discipline.
However, according to the report, which was apparently revealed by Alhagie Ebrima Faye, a FIFA referee and an executive member of the Gambia Football Federation during a recent interview with the point, the minister’s search ended in futility, having failed to land his coveted coach. And Mr Faye was critical of the sport minister’s nonconventional approach to look for a national team coach by himself without consulting the GFF or to say the least work with them in this search, as he believes that falls under the responsibilities of the Federation. Now this is clearly stated in article 36 of the GFF constitution, which listed the powers of the executive, and it’s stated in section 36(J) that “the executive committee shall appoint the coaches for the representative teams and other technical staff.” So it’s hard to understand what the minister seek address in this by going solo.
Since taking charge of the sports ministry, the minister Gomez’s relationship with the current national football administrators has been very stand-offish, disharmonious at most. It took FIFA’s intervention and the subsequent involvement of the president of the state, Adama Barrow, to settle the friction that broke between his ministry, the National Sports Council the Football Federation back in November last year, when the Sports Council, who are directly under his ministry, decided to suspend the entire members of the football administration, which brought FIFA’s caution in a letter that threatened a possible global ban from football for the small West African nation, and it took President Barrow’s intervention to arrest that situation in the eleventh hour, wand this led to the suspensions being withdrawn.
The minister then went on air in the aftermath of that stand off to say “lets by gone be by gone” and that he was ready to sit down and discuss with those at the Federation, to seek a way forward for the nation’s football, and thus it was surprising to see the cracks are still there and exposed.
The Gambia’s coaching situation needs a proper examination and of course a lasting solution to it. Now that Sang Ndong has been appointed to look after the technical department, it will make sense to find his replacement for the national team rather than having him in both positions. He has done what he could in the past two years and i think it’s about time for a change. He’s had enough spells in the coaching role without the required result, which makes it about time to give someone else a chance. He was first appointed as a coach in the early 90s to the early 2000s, where he oversaw the country’s failed attempt to reach the 2004 African Cup of Nations and the same fate followed the team again in their most recent attempt under his current watch
Having a new coach with fresh ideas may help improve the on field failures of the team. It’s good that the Under 20s coach Matarr Mboge is working hard with U20s, which is good to help prepare for the future, and proper scouting and training is key in that. However the national team needs a coach that can take these players from where they left off with the U20s to the next stage and this doesn’t necessarily have to be a Gambian. And one country they could extend their search to is where the minister had been, Germany, although he had used the wrong channels. Germany has one of the highest number of qualified coaches than anywhere in the world, credit to the training system they have adopted since their failure in Euro 2000. Whereby they train both footballers and coaches continuously.
By: Omar Jatta
