Journalist Amadou Tamba has reported that the Board of Independence Stadium and The Gambia’s Ministry of Works and Infrastructure will present a projected budget of one hundred million dalasis (D100, 000 000.00) to President Adama Barrow and his Cabinet for the timely renovation of the country’s only stadium ahead of the Ivory Coast 2023 AFCON Qualifiers.
Ebou Faye, the General Manager of the Independence Stadium has revealed that the government will be given an option to partially or fully renovate the stadium. Mr. Faye added that if funds are available, the Scorpions might even play their May AFCON qualifier in Banjul.
”Now it will be taken to the cabinet for discussion to see how we go about the rehabilitation, either in full or in stages, as we have given them all those options, so it’s for them to come up with a position and see if the funds are available so that work can start and, maybe, before our match in June, we might be able to complete it and play our home match here,” Ebou Faye told Amadou Tamba in an interview recently.
Ebou Faye who is also the 2nd Vice President of The Gambia Football Federation suggested that it will be more ideal for the Scorpions to play their home matches in Senegal than in Morocco if the Independence Stadium is not ready in time to host the Gambia’s first qualifier match in May – June.
“We are pushing them to make sure in June we can have our qualifiers here because according to the CAF changes, we have one home match in June, so hopefully it might happen. If not, we definitely cannot go back to Morocco, where we are totally outnumbered, so we need to play maybe in Senegal, which is much easier for our fans, but the target and emphasis are to play at home.” Faye told the Capital FM’s Commentator, Amadou Tamba.
