CAF bans Gambia for two years

CAF suspends Gambia from all competitions for two years

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has banned Gambia from all African football competitions for two years for age cheating.

This decision was confirmed by CAF on its official website after Gambia fielded in five overage players in a 2015 African U-20 Championship qualifier against Liberia.

The Liberia Football Association (LFA) filed an appeal against Gambia for fielding overage players in the first leg of the round qualifier on April 7, 2014 at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium, a game Gambia won 1-0 courtesy of a Bakary Daffeh 35th minute strike.

Gambia won the match but CAF found that Gamtel’s Sampierre Mendy, Casa Sport’s Saloum Faal, Juve Stabia’s Ali Sowe and Real de Banjul duo Bubacarr Sanneh and Bubacarr Trawally were all born in 1994 with the competition’s regulations stating that players have to be born on or after 1 January 1995.

The African governing body said it had found that all five players were born in 1994 and were ineligible to play in the game as only players born from 1995 onwards can play in the competition.

A CAF statement read: “The Executive Committee has finally decided to suspend the Gambia Football Association for two years from all CAF competitions in line with ‘Article 37 Paragraph 1’ of the regulations of the African U-20 Championship, which states ‘for any deliberate intention to foul or cheat in any matter involving the falsification of documents, the defaulting association shall be suspended for two years from all CAF competitions’”.

“On 20 April 2014, the Organizing Committee for the African U-20 Championship decided on the disqualification of The Gambia for fielding five players ineligible for the age criteria in the qualifier, Liberia-Gambia on 6 April 2014. All the five players were born in 1994 whilst the competition according to a CAF circular dated 2 September 2013 is open to players born on 1 January 1995 or after.”

“Thereafter, CAF launched an investigation into the case of the player Ali Sowe, born on 14 June 1994 with passport Number 332465 who was one of five players which led to the suspension of The Gambia. Indeed, he had already registered with CAF in 2012 with Gamtel FC in the Orange CAF Confederation Cup with the same passport number but date of birth of birth as 14 October 1988.”

In the statement, CAF president, Issa Hayatou reiterated that his executive has “zero tolerance for fraud” and reaffirmed CAF’s determination to “permanently rid African football of practices which violate ethics and morality”.

Meanwhile, a task force committee setup by the National Sports Council (NSC) has asked the Mustapha Kebbeh led executive to tender their resignation for “embarrassing” the nation.

CAF’s decision now means that the senior national team of the Gambia, Scorpions, will be disqualified from taking part in the qualifiers for the 2015 African Cup of Nations in Morocco with the country never qualifying for either the AFCON or the FIFA World Cup.

The two year’s suspension will also affect the clubs in the GFF League Division One as they won’t be able to play in CAF’s continental competitions (CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup).