The Gambia Football Association (GFA) has made a plaintive appeal to football fans and other members of the general public, to be “on their best behaviour” in the build-up to preparations for the World Cup and African Nations Cup qualification rounds and other CAF-sanctioned football competitions for the year 2008.

The appeal came in the wake of a huge financial sanction imposed on GFA by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

In a press release issued yesterday the GFA said: “We would like to sincerely appeal to the general public, especially the fans, to comport themselves and for them to be in their best behaviour before, during and after the matches to avoid further sanction from the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The CAF Disciplinary Board at their meeting held recently, imposed a financial sanction of USD 10,000.00 for the unsporting behaviour of our supporters, as well as the offensive behaviour of some of our players, during preliminaries of the 26th African Cup of Nations, Ghana 2008 against Algeria played at the Independence Stadium in Bakau. CAF Disciplinary Board also suspended six players for their two next matches with their national teams in the frame of qualifiers of African Cup Nations for the 2010 World Cup for their involvement in a quarrel and catfight after the Gambia/Algeria match. The suspended players are Lamin Conateh, Abdoulie Carr and Assan Jatta of the Gambia and Meniri Mahdi, Daha Noureddinne and Bougherra Madji of Algeria.