By Omar Jatta

Finally the Gambia’s overly awaited yearn for a new national team head coach has come to an end, why is it Sang Ndong? And What next for The Gambia national football team? These are two questions some sections of The Gambian football fans must be asking.

Sang was reappointed to take charge of the scorpions for a third seperate spell following his unveiling to the press last Wednesday as the successor to the dismissed Swiss coach, Raoul Savoy, who was relieved from the job in November last year, following a run of unsatisfactory results in his eight month stint with the scorpions.

The reappointment of the former Hawks goalkeeper and coach was an open secret, as his name had been linked with the vacant job for many months in the wake of Savoy’s departure, which was either leaked to some section of the media by default or through mismanagement of information. But nonetheless, that’s not an issue, however, the reappointment of a coach who has had three previous stints in charge of the national team spanning close to a decade must certainly evoke questions about the intuitive criterion adopted in the selection process. Sang, a great football personality who has been around Gambian football for a very long time, both as a player and coach makes a reasonable choice, but is he the decisive choice to catapult the country’s lingering football to the next level? The long standing quest to make an appearance in a major international football championship, particularly the African Cup of Nations?

The notion progress is only possible by deviating from norm is no myth, but a fact of life and critics are denoting that may be it’s about time for Gambian football to study it’s posit, as it endeavours to unshackle itself from looping around the same hoops. Some believe in order to forge a way ahead there was a need to have extended the search with the invitation of new untried faces, inviting some of the nation’s recent past generations of football players, who had played and been around the game at the highest level possible, to induce some new impetus and ideas into the team.

But nonetheless, despite the variance in opinions, Sang’s appointment has proven to be a popular one amongst Gambian fans and commentators, leaving those who questioned the wisdom in his selection starved for answers.

In doing our best to get a glimmer of those answers, gamfootballfans.com put the questions to some of the people who knew and have worked with the man charged with the ‘rebranding and rebuilding’ of The Gambia national football team.

This week through our online Radio, BES RADIO, our Chief host Mr Lamin Barrow spoke to the secretary general of Hawks FC, The Gambian first division league side sang had left to join the Scorpions, Mr Sadibou Kamaso, who expressed his club’s disappointment in loosing their long standing coach to the Scorpions, the man he described as the pioneer of their current developmental programme, but he also admitted that the national call outweighed their resolve to keep him at Hawks FC.

“Sang Ndong is the only coach in the country with an A licence,”  said Mr Kamaso. “He has been the national team coach before and this is the third time coming.

“But the Sang Ndong now and the Sang Ndong before are a totally different ball game. Then there wasn’t much experience. He’s been to Brazil, and did his studies in the UK to get his UEFA A licence. He was then handed the national team, he was coaching but he never did any apprenticeship at the time under any coach, most of these coaches have always gone through someone, where they’ve done their training and all that.

“But over the years, whilst he’s been coaching at Hawks, he’s done a lot of interactions with other people and gained lot of experience than before and this will make a difference, a positive one I think, Mr Kamaso added.

Kamaso also praised Sang for his youth developmental skills and credited him for the current set up at Hawks Football Club, where he had helped set up a 10 year strategic developmental plan which gave the club  a unique opportunity to have a team in all three divisional leagues in The Gambia alongside there academy, which also takes part in the junior leagues.

“When Sang took over in 2003, under his guidance we introduced a 10 year strategic plan, to develop young players into professional players and also to build the capacity of coaches and other technicians,” said Kamaso. A scheme, he believe as the main reason why the club has over 15 coaches in their books. More than any other club in the country.

Ndong, who had also served as technical director at the Football Federation, will now be in charge of the team’s remaining four games for the 2017 African Cup Of Nations qualifiers, starting with a double-header against Mauritania next month.

In his speech during his unvieling, the former national team goalkeeper revealed why he took on the coach’s job for a third time, with him also disclosing his objectives for the team.

“Our objective now is to rebuild. We’re not saying there’s nothing on the ground – there is,” he said.

“But we want to take it from where it is, to another level and to change, not the brand the national team is using, but the face of the national team, how we see our national team.”

“Coaching the national team is the easiest job one can do here BUT looking into the problems of the national team is where experience and knowledge, support and motivation matters,” he added.

“I accepted this position for the simple reason that I am a Gambian, I am a coach.

“I want to help set the standard for Gambian coaches, for us to be recognised – to be respected to be given the opportunities and to be supported.”

Sang has the credentials to succeed this time around in helping transform The Gambia’s football, but it is without doubt a real daunting task. The former Hawks Coach spent a year studying in Brazil in the early 90s, where he specialed in studying PE (Physical education), after securing a YMCA scholarship and ended up qualifying as a physical education teacher and a director at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) before finally securing his football certificate in coaching in 1992.

Having said all these, The Gambia’s lack of on-field successes is not all down the coaching alone, but also the talent deficiencies. There is real lack of young talents coming through the ranks, and this must be addressed first and foremost as a requisite requirement in any rebuilding or developmental projects.

What Next?

Any developmental initiatives for Gambian football has to start from the grassroot and The Gambia Football Federation must put Sang, as the head coach at the centre of the ‘rebuilding and rebranding’ process. They must ensure they tap into all feasible areas and draw up a drastic but realistic plan. May be a ten year plan with clear goals and objectives.

Recently GFF President, Lamin Kabba Bajo revealed they are intensifying focus on schools around the country with a widened scouting network to spot the best young talents around, as part of plans to promote grassroot football, in view to expand the player pool for selection.

This is a great initiative, one that could propel Gambian football to higher heights, rejuvenate our faltering game back to the days when we had school boy inetrnationals. It can be desined around the inter-schools football competitions, and for which they cann seek support through FIFA Grassroots programme, which help member associons in setting up their grassroot level development. The Domestic Youth Competions programme is another programme that could enhance this quest. In ths member associations can create and manage structured competions at youth levels and they can seek support in areas of consultancy, football equipment, logistics capacity-building and above all financial support.

The Federation should also take this opportunity to explore and make the best use of FIFA’s developmental funding programmes, such as the Goal Project and the FIFA Financial Assistance Programme (FAP) which were both introduced in the late 90s. Systematic support programmes, designed to support struggling member associations and confederations.

They are introduced to motivate and empower the associations and confederations to organise development programmes that meet their needs and strengthen football and its administration in the long term, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, youth football and technical development. The annual funds under the FAP as determined by FIFA’s budget currently amount to USD 250,000 per member association. The annual funds under the Support to Confederations Development Programmes as determined by FIFA’s budget currently amount to USD 5.5 million per confederation.

The other issue affecting our nation’s game, was clearly highlighted in the fact Sang Ndong is currently the only Gambian coach with an A Licence. which is really below par and there should be some provisions for coach development and training, as any grassroot developmental programme goes with coaches training, in other to facilitate the player development processes. Again this could addressed through the FIFA Grassroot projects, which includes the training of local coaches and educators.