As sponsors of the Senior Secondary School Football Championship dubbed “Principal Cup”, Guarantee Trust Bank Gambia Limited (GTB) on Friday handed full sets of football jerseys and footballs to all the eight participating schools (male and female).
The ceremony, held at the Bank’s head office along Kairaba Avenue, also witnessed the balloting for the grouping ahead of the start of tournament.
The tournament is aimed at actively engaging the youth through sports whilst promoting the values of excellence and fair play. The winner of the tournament will receive a giant trophy and a cash prize of D100, 000, while the runners-up will go home with D50, 000 in both categories.
In the women balloting, Group A comprises of Bottrop SSS, Brikama Ba SSS, Daddy Jobe SSS and Tahir SSS, while Group B comprises Muslim SSS, Njain Sanjal SSS, Mingdow SSS and Nasir SSS.
In the men’s category, Group A comprises St. Augustine SSS, Bureng SSS, Tujereng SSS and Nasir SSS, while Group B comprises Armitage SSS, Kanifing East SSS, Brusubi SSS and Farafenni SSS.
The Managing Director of Guarantee Trust Bank, Bolaji Ayodele, said that their initial budget was D1.5 million, but at the time of the presentation, the budget had increased to over D2 million.
The Bank, he said was happy to sign an MoU with the Secondary School Sports Association through the Secondary Schools Football Association to sponsor the tournament.
He said the tournament would help The Gambia Football Federation identify talents for the various categories of the national teams.
“I can assure you today despite the amount of money the Bank is going to put into the programme, I believe that we are going to get the future that would play for The Gambia through this championship.”
Martin Gomez, the President of The Gambia Secondary Schools Football Association thanked Guarantee Trust Bank for what he described as one of their biggest gestures since the start of the Association.
He said sponsorship had been a big problem for the Association and commended the Bank for the timely intervention.
According to him, the championship is a platform for students to showcase their talents in sports, particularly football, while urging all the schools, players and coaches to compete with the intention of winning the tournament.
“Most of the African greatest footballers played in such school tournaments when they were going to school; the likes of the late Nigerian coach and former player Stephen Keshi, amongst other,” he concluded.
by Arfang MS Camara