Gambia appeals CAF’s two-year international ban

Gambia to contest CAF two-year ban

The Gambia Football Federation has appealed against the country’s two-year ban from international competition by CAF for selecting overage players in an under-20 match and allegedly forging player documents.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) suspended Gambia from all African competitions for fielding five overage players in an under-20 championship qualifier against Liberia last month.

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.

Gambia were, therefore, disqualified from the qualifier and following further investigation, banned from all CAF competitions for two years.

In their decision, CAF declared that some of the players’ passports were doctored with Ali Sowe, currently of Italian Serie A club AC Chievo Verona, possibly being as old as 25, after it discovered records from a 2012 club competition that showed his birthday on his passport as October 14, 1988.

Speaking to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Mustapha Kebbeh, president of GFF, insisted that there has been no wrongdoing on their part.

“It was purely an administrative error from years ago – I am sure there is some misunderstanding somewhere. We have written to CAF to explain to them and appeal against the decision against The Gambia,” Kebbeh told BBC Sport on Tuesday.

“The ban is something we are not happy with and it’s a decision that we think should not be inflicted on The Gambia.”

However, CAF has told the BBC that there is no appeals procedure because the decision was taken by its executive committee, adding that The Gambia would either have to admit guilt and seek a pardon or take their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but when BBC Sport relayed this information to Kebbeh, he declared his belief that it would not be necessary for The Gambia to pursue either of those options.

“We are going ahead to explain to our parent body in Africa and to show them all the evidence that there was not a deliberate intention in any way by GFF or The Gambia to incorrectly certify age,” he said.

“We will show CAF all the evidence and I’m sure it will then be better placed to accept our explanation and reconsider its position. We are confident the suspension will be lifted.”

Under the current ban, the Scorpions of Gambia were thrown out of qualifying for next year’s African Cup of Nations in Morocco, with Gambian clubs unable to play in continental games (CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup).