PICTURE THIS

'I admire those who don't have time to watch football, because they have the time for other things which will not kill them suddenly' Ebrima Baldeh writes about his impressions on the early exit of the Gambia cadet team in CAF under 17 in Rwanda.

The failure of our darling scorpions as they are known in the Gambia has attracted series of comments and criticisms about which way Gambian cadet football is heading to after the shocking exit in Kigali.

May be they weren't just not lucky to go all the way, I mean the Under 17 team who represented the Gambia in the CAF cadet tournament, only to be kicked out of the competition after succumbing to a humiliating defeat in the hands of Ivory Coast last Saturday.


The defeat was the second since the tournament started last week, like if it was just under a spell, Congo hammered us on Sunday with three goals to nothing and along the way Gambia mauled Mali. On the following Saturday, Ivory Coast would have its own turn to finally send us crashing disgracefully out of Rwanda 2011.


Calls and text messages started flowing into the popular sports programme on West Coast FM radio, throwing missiles on the coach for the dismal performance of the Under 17. Others went further to blame the MRI test for spoiling the tournament for us after eight players were dropped after the age-test. Others players were equally tested with reports that it had also affected them.

The Gambia indeed started playing well in the Under 17 since 2003 when the best performance was took us to the second round. And two years after that, the Gambia had the rare chance of hosting the tournament and went ahead to win the tournament for the first time in its football history.


Two years later, the defending Champions went to Algeria in 2009 to defend the title and lifted the trophy again. The euphoria that went along with it huge profits, a million dalasi was given to all the players who participated in the tournament. That was the highest prize President Jammeh presented to the young footballers.


Earlier, the country had represented the country in the junior World Cup in Peru where the first match against Brazil was historic - Gambia 3 -Brazil 1


Now people are beginning to forget that the game of football is full of actions, ups and downs, which ultimately meant that we have refused to accept or submit ourselves to the rules of the GAME. We have harsh words for the coach and the team that had in our opinions woefully failed us.

However, we need to remember that sometimes one has to fail to gain experience so that one can learn from the mistakes of the past and move ahead. I support comments that are positively directed and expressed in a constructive manner, so that it would serve as a lesson for the technicians who might have select another team next time.

The Gambia should count themselves lucky to have grabbed the trophy twice, while other countries in Africa or around the world are yet to appear at such high profile sporting games. The Drawing Board is the place we should retreat and take our place on the game.