Ebou Faye, the manager of Independence Stadium has clarified the decision taken by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
According to Manager Faye, CAF didn’t impose a ban on the country’s only international stadium which is under renovation after its latest inspection. He clarified that The Gambia is sanctioned to improve certain identified areas on its current work proposed by the preliminary inspector.
The Independence Stadium is currently being renovated with a staggering amount of over D100,000,000.
Mr. Faye, who is also the 2nd vice president of The Gambia Football Federation (GFF), was speaking in an interview regarding the state of the stadium’s ongoing renovation work as well as CAF’s decision.
“The independence stadium is not banned,” he declared. “CAF just said that the September match cannot take place in The Gambia because work is still on. Work must be completed before they (CAF) were able to come and do the final inspection.”
According to Mr. Ebou Faye, there is no mistake made on the current stadium renovation work. “What CAF representative, Muhammad Sidat, did when he visited was to propose certain things and pass certain things.”
“The areas he proposed that we expand or move are the player tunnel, media tribune and center, press conference room, dressing room floor and footlights. These are things we are working on as we have already identified places. It was supposed to be done within two-and-half-weeks by the time he said it. This is why CAF deemed it necessary that we cannot complete the work within that period.”
The Stadium Manager revealed that the things mentioned by Mr. Sidat were not specific in the CAF document, noting that the document just related that there must be a press tribune but “it doesn’t indicate where it should be.”
“When the preliminary inspector came in July and from that day to 27 August would have been two and a half weeks. As the stadium is under construction, and certain areas are identified to be improved, the competition department deemed it that we cannot complete the work within that short period. This is why they said we cannot play our match but not banned as mentioned by many.”