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| Delegates at a 13 April, 2013 Constitutional Adoptive Congress blames GFF Normalisation Committee of presiding over massive irregularities (Photo credit: B.B. Baldeh/GFA/Facebook) |
Former
President Seedy Kinteh and Vice President Adama Halla Samba have been banned after an NC-established Disciplinary Committee accused them of “financial misappropriation”
and “managerial irregularities”.
A
fifth candidate for the presidency, Kebba Yorro Manneh, was rejected after
clubs decided against supporting his candidature as required by the GFF
Constitution, the NC said on July 17.
Meanwhile
Kinteh and Samba have both denied allegations of financial misuse and
maladminsitration during a joint press conference on Wednesday.
They
noted that such allegations have popped-up in the past but they were cleared by
a police inquiry into the matter.
They
also accuse the NC of involving in a smear campaign and witchhunt against the
Kinteh-led executive committee that was dissolved by The Gambia’s Sports
Ministry on March 2, 2012.
Presidential
and executive committee elections of the GFF are sheduled for July 31, 2013.
But
tensions have since risen after strong opposition to allegations that the NC
was up to bar some presidential aspirants including former President Kinteh.
When
the five year ban of Kinteh and 15 of his dissolved executive committee was
announced on Monday, local journalists said they saw this (ban) coming ever
since the GFF NC granted itself “sweeping powers” in a mysterious letter
purportedly sent to it by FIFA last week.
Namorry
Trawally, a senior sports journalist, said the NC wants to kick against public
opinion by vowing at a secret meeting to disqualify Mr. Kinteh and Mr. Samba
from contesting for the presidency of the GFF.
“This
recent overture from Mr. Omar Sey (NC Chairperson) has not come as a surprise
to most of us because he has an old score to settle with either of the two,”
alleges Trawally, also the Editor-In-Chief of Sports View.
On
June 8, former FIFA Deputy General Secretary, Jerome Champagne, said he is
dissatisfied with attempts to block candidates running for GFF presidency.
“To
block candidates is not correct and frankly we should have an open election,”
Champagne told West Coast Radio’s Abdoulie Bah in Ramallah during President
Sepp Blatter’s tour of the Middle East: Jordan, Palestine and Israel.
“Football
is about democracy, and football is about giving a chance to everyone,” he
said.
“When
I read that some people are trying to block some candidates, I think it’s not
correct and frankly I think that we should have an open election,” the
ex-Political Advisor to Blatter added.
“I
don’t know but I have observed that some people were asking to see the letter
and I would like also as a citizen of world football - I’m interested about
what’s going on in Gambia. There is nothing to hide,” Champagne said in
response to whether the letter alleged to have come from FIFA was authentic.
The
purported letter allows for the barring of candidates who brought the game into
what the NC considered a “state of agony”.
Football’s
world governing body, FIFA, is still mute over the confusing state of the
management of the game in the tiny West African nation of The Gambia, and its
continuing silence is disturbing, The North Bank Evening Standard (TNBES)
is told.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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