Colonel Lang Tombong Tamba, the first Vice-President of the Gambia Football Association, who also doubles as the Chief of Defence Staff of Gambia Armed Forces, has stated that female football has taken a great stride in the Gambia in the recent years.

The GFA No. 2 said this is evident in the establishment of the female league in and around the country with the support of the World football governing body, FIFA. Colonel Tamba made these remarks at a one-day seminar on women’s football organised by FIFA in collaboration with the Gambia Football Association.

Colonel Tamba described the seminar as a positive step in galvanising female football in the Gambia, adding that the gathering was an important vehicle to raise public awareness about women’s soccer, which he said, has a "great potential for growth". Colonel Tamba added: "Women’s football presents a huge challenge and it is very important that it is given the same opportunity open to the men’s game. I would like to appeal to the members of the business community as well as private individuals to invest in female football." With massive public and corporate support, Tamba added, "I am convinced that ten years from now female football will be marked differently from the point of public interest".

According to Lang Tombong, GFA, as the football governing body in the Gambia, has put in place an ambitious development plan for the future of women’s game between now and 2012. The primary objective of this gender friendly program, he said, is to see the Gambia female national teams compete in the CAF and FIFA sanctioned competitions. "we also envisage the creation of women’s football department in the football association in the near future. We further plan to strengthen 12 team first divisions as the main tournament and further increase the number of amateur sides," Col Tamba said.

In conclusion, Col Tamba expressed GFA’s appreciation to FIFA for supporting the program. He also thanked the course directors in the persons of Mr Ben Koufie and Mrs Bailly Marie-Paule for their impressive track record in football administration and their time in making this historic event a success. Col Tamba also commended the members of the GFA female football committee and the entire GFA executive committee under the dynamic leadership of Mr Seedy Kinteh. For her part, Fatoumata Jahumpa Ceesay, the nominated member of the National Assembly, said: "It is with great pleasure that I recognise the tremendous strides women’s football has made in recent years. Having long since wiped out any misconceptions of football being predominantly a men’s sports, today football proudly counts over 30 million female players worldwide."

JFC added that with the launch of the FIFA U-17 women’s world cup in 2008 and the FIFA U-20 women’s world cup now complementing the women’s Olympic football tournament and FIFA women’s world cup on the new women’s coordinated international match calendar, the competitive allure and technical quality of women’s game is indisputably higher that ever. She added that whereas the continual growth of female participation in the sports is very encouraging, we must nevertheless continue to pro-actively promote the evolution of the women’s game in a positive manner. One of the most important objectives, she said, is to help develop and initiate a comprehensive women’s football program that will provide training for female coaches, referees and administrators. Thursday’s seminar was attended by scores of pundits in the sports strata.