UGLY SIDE OF A BEAUTIFUL SUPER “NAWETTAN”

One will wonder how a tournament which is the most popular football championship in the country (The Gambia) can have such ugly side. Perhaps its ugly sides are over-showed by its excitements. But the campaign has as many ugly sides as you could imagine.

As the 2018 “Super Nawettan” campaign approaches, most sporting representative from the top down under are bracing themselves up for the show piece, so too the players, referees, fans and members of the press.

Spectators in a super nawettan game

“Super Nawettan” (Zonals) is an annual summer football championship played by the selection of footballing communities recognized by Gambia Football Federation as footballing centres / zones. As at last season it was fourteen community that participated in the campaign which was won by Sukuta.

However, this season three new zones (communities) – (Lower River Region, Sanyang and FABY Farato+Busumbala+Yundum) are recruited into the system to complete the odds, with Bakau serving a ban following a crowd trouble last season.

The increment will perhaps add more value to the tournament as fans from the new communities will add up numbers and ambience on the stands.

Such campaign (Super Nawettan) like any other, has its positive sides so too the negative. In this article we look at the ugly side of what is always going to be a completely beautiful Super Nawettan. On top of that list is:

CROWD TROUBLE: It remains the highest concern of the supporters. After more than two decade of existence, yet the organizers could not put measures in place to prevent the tournament from crowd trouble, neither could the fans turned mature enough to realized that violence only painted the campaign with bad reputations. It is always impossible for a Super nawettan to be played without major incidents. When are the supporters going to stop their usual fights and missile throwing during and after games.

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY: Since there is no accountability in the organization of the Super Nawettan, one could imagine the level of corruption involved. The organizing committee has never put before the representatives of the various zones the annual report of super nawettan activities. Super nawettan being the highest income generating competition nationally, could have helped the development of zones by now if there is accountability and transparency! Bragging about giving mere one hundred and fifty thousand to a zone annually is not just ridiculous but an insult to the zones as well.

Take last season’s final between Sukuta and BEM in which the twenty-eight thousand seats were all occupied. Uncovered pavilion was pegged at twenty-five dalasi’s, covered at fifty dalasi’s and V.I.P at two-hundred. By estimation nothing less than one million, two-hundred and twenty-two thousand dalasi was scored. The expenses for the final was not up to two-hundred and twenty-two thousand dalasi’s. Since there was no percentage for the two finalists. What happened to the one million plus? Which excluded the 40% of the organizing committee’s share for every single game from match one to the last semi final game.

Not to talk about the publicity funds given by the sponsors where are they putting that? Last season the sponsors FiBank attacked GRTS for not mentioning /talking about them in their news report as sponsors, following the presentation of kits to the zones. The response from the state broadcaster was “that will be a publicity for your bank, and we are not paid for it”, which nearly caused problem for the organizers as the Bank started questioning about how the funds were spent.

Sukuta Zonal Team

SELECTIVE JUSTICE: It is not bad for members of the various zones to formed a committee and stair the affairs of the championship but, it is unworthy to falter in the execution of responsibilities as some vocal members will turned blind eye to the faults of other zones while punishing others.

Take Bakau for example they are suspended and they have to serve the suspension while Brikama were equally suspended season before last but the suspension was lifted going into a new campaign. Banjul has caused chaos and broken the glasses of the stadium windows after their 2 – 1 lost to Gunjur in 2016 finals NOTHING was said about it despite the efforts of some members “to ensure that justice was done”. The list goes on and on……….

POOR SCHEDULING OF GAMES: Considering the fact that zone like Gunjur, Brufut, Lamin, Sukuta etc. does not have grounds that meet the requirements to host games. It appears the organizing committee are taking that as an advantage to schedule the matches of those zones as they wish. For nearly two decades now Gunjur has played 98% of their games against Banjul inside Banjul. What is stopping the organizers from scheduling some of those games in a much closer venue to Gunjur like Brikama? Yet BEM have to crossed the river and traveled a long journey to play some of their games in Brikama. The same could be said for other zones without home ground.

Of recent, Gunjur vs Brikama was initially scheduled to be played at the East Park, only for the organizers to take a twist and reschedule the tie at Brikama which appears as if they are doing a favor for Brikama. While Gunjur will still have to travel a long way to play Lamin and Brufut inside Manjai a ground that will prevent the players from playing beautiful football and showcasing their potentials, as it is only suitable for FARMING!

Gunjur Zonal Team

INCOMPETENCE OF ORGANIZERS: The incompetency of the 2016 organizing committee led by Ba Jabbi was exposed when they failed to handed out individual awards (best player Salifu Bojang Gunjur, top scorer Mbemba Fatty Gunjur, outstanding goalkeeper Savage Banjul) at the end of the campaign, to date those awards are not given even after several failed promises by Ba Jabbi.

Ba Jabbi was replaced with Lang Tombong Tamba in 2017 but, it appeared as if Lang’s executive is a carbon copy of the Ba Jabbi led executive, when they recruited two new zones (Foni and Kombo East). Bringing in the two zones maybe considered a step geared towards the development of football but, the timing of their inclusion is UGLY as it left two other groups with three teams which saw teams progressing with a mere two points, while other teams in other group will have to exit with their six and five points. This is a complete sabotage to a tournament of Super Nawettan caliber.

HOW ABOUT POOR OFFICIATING? Yes, you are right, in fact, it is responsible for most crowd troubles. Sometimes the way referees officiated matches are just simply unbearable. 2012 final between Brikama and Bakau is a typical example.

Bakary Papa Gassama could have prevented that game from ending tempestuously if he had simply blown a whistle for a fair play which no one would have complain about, as Bakau crowded in the Brikama box following a collision, but by allowing Brikama’s Foday Saidy and Muhammed Camara to break on a counter attack and Camara scoring the winning goal which led to the controversy, was a naïve refereeing.

In 2016 Bubacarr Bass ripped off Gunjur on broad day light in their 1 – 0 lost away to Banjul, as he deliberately ignored two handling by Banjul defense in the Banjul 18yard box. He was attacked by angry supporters at the final whistle but, the security on the ground were able to controlled the situation.

The 2018 super nawettan championship which is set to start on October 26th will be so beautiful if improvement could be done about the ugly sides. But, the way organizers are tailoring the fixture without anything starting yet, indicates the odds are set to continue.