FIFA official ends Gambia visit

David Jabir, General Secretary of Bermuda Football Association, who was in the country as a special envoy of the world football governing body (FIFA) to assess the state of the facilities of the nation’s main stadium has expressed his satisfaction with what he saw in The Gambia.

 Jabir, who left Banjul on Wednesday, after a three-day inspection tour, said he was pleased with the reception from the Gambia Football Association, adding that his findings were positive.

The visiting FIFA Inspector who toured the Independence Stadium, the venue for the upcoming World Cup qualifier matches, however, recommended that certain facilities within the nation’s main stadium should be renovated before the qualifier campaign.
The facilities that should be renovated, according to Inspector Jabir, include the press cabins, dressing rooms and referees room.

The FIFA official also recommended that the seats of the pavilions should be numbered to control over-crowding. He was however glad to note that the nearest hospital to the stadium was just a few metres away.

After his inspection tour of the facilities at the Independence Stadium, Jabir paid a courtesy call on the SoS for Youth and Sports Alhagi Mass Axi Gai, and he was pleased that the responses from the sports department were positive.

“I am very much pleased with the sports department’s response. They pledged their full backing to make sure everything is in the right order before the commencement of the campaign,” he said.

Jabir could not also hide his envy of the Gambia Football Association’s administrative building as, according to him, his native town, Bermuda in South America, cannot still get a land to construct such a state-of-art structure.

David Jambir was during his three-day inspection tour, accompanied by Modou Gaye, GFA/FIFA Security Officer who doubles as the Deputy Inspector General of the Gambia Police Force and Bakary Terema Dahaba, Director of GFA Technical Centre.
An inspection tour of stadiums hosting FIFA competitions, is a normal routine for the world football governing body who attaches great importance to the safety of the stadiums.