Soccer in the Gambia

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Independence Stadium

Football in Gambia is very important; In addition to track and field athletes, there are professional football players who are committed to various club teams around the world, as well as the national team of the West African state of Gambia , who are internationally recognized in sport.

organization

The Gambia Football Association is the umbrella organization of the 51 clubs and organizes the GFA League First Division , the GFA League Second Division and the GFA Cup . She is also responsible for the Gambian national soccer team .

There are around 68,000 football players in Gambia, 4,530 of whom are registered with FIFA .

See also list of Gambian football clubs .

National soccer team

Main article Gambian national soccer team

The national soccer team (called The Scorpions ) is currently in the FIFA world rankings on rank 90 (as of September 2008) and on the continental level (the CAF ) on rank 26. For the soccer World Cup 2006 the team was defeated in the first qualifying round against the Team from Liberia and could not qualify further.

The U20 team, on the other hand, qualified for the Junior World Championships. There the team made it into the round of 16 of the U20 World Cup in Canada on July 9, 2007 with a 2: 1 (1: 1) victory over the Portuguese team, where Austria was, however, 1: 2 (0 : 1) had to give up.

In 2005 the U17 team won the African Championship against Ghana. At the U-17 World Cup, which took place in the same year , they defeated the reigning U17 world champions, the Brazilian U17 team, but still did not make it to the quarter-finals due to a worse goal difference.

The African Football Association banned the U20 national team from all continental competitions from 2014 to 2016 because several players had falsified their age information.

The 19-year-old goalkeeper of the women's national team , Fatim Jawara , drowned as a boat refugee in the Mediterranean Sea in early November 2016.

history

In 1940 the history of football in Gambia, the British colony until 1965 , began with the "Bathurst League 1940" , the first championship with seven teams from Bathurst, as the capital Banjul was called at that time. The first championship started with the Augustians Bathurst , among others , who were successful in the 1960s.

The first cup competition was held in 1952. in the final, the Gambia United faced the Augustians Bathurst . The final game, which was played on July 5th in the Box Bar Stadium , won the Gambia United 2-1.

The second division was created for the 1954/54 season and at the beginning of the 1967/68 season the number of teams in the first division was increased to eight.

On November 30, 1969, the first football match was broadcast live on the radio with commentary. It was the final of the GFA Cup between Real de Banjul Football Club and the White Phantoms .

At the beginning of the 1974/75 season the number of teams in the top division was increased to eleven, but in the following season the number of teams was reduced back to six.

Before the construction of the national stadium in the early 1980s as Independence Stadium in Bakau , the Box Bar Stadium in Banjul was used as the national stadium. The first game at Independence Stadium, in the SS Ceesay Trophy Final , was played on November 13, 1984. The Banjul Hawks Football Club played against the Starlight Gunners .

In the 1988/89 season there were numerous financial problems, three teams left the league - whereupon the entire championship was canceled.

In 2008 the number of clubs in the GFA League First Division was increased from ten to twelve.

Wallidan Banjul , the most successful team, was the first in history to double the championship and trophy in 2008.

Sports facilities

There is a large stadium near Banjul that can hold 40,000 spectators. The 29 million euro Independence Stadium was built by the Chinese as part of a development aid project. This national stadium is also used for cultural events.

see also list of stadiums in Gambia

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b FIFA: General information about the country, accessed July 2008
  2. ↑ http://www.fifa.com/ The Gambian national soccer team in the FIFA / Coca-Cola world rankings
  3. ↑ www.weltfussball.de , May 10, 2014.
  4. ↑ Spiegel Online , November 3, 2016.
  5. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 1940
  6. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 1952
  7. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 1954/55
  8. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 1967/68
  9. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 1969/70
  10. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 1974/75
  11. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 1975/76
  12. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 1984/85
  13. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 1988/89
  14. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com Gambia 2007
  15. ^ Wallidan FC 2008 Champions from July 14th
  16. ^ Wallidan Clinch Double from September 8, 2008

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