Four Swedish football coaches selected from the Gambiagrupperner in Sweden, are currently in The Gambia to implement an exchange programme with the Gambia Football Coaches Association, in the area of capacity building training for Gambian football coaches.

The quartet are Caj Hjelm, Anita Jonasson, Maria Hagfalf Woss and Pa Musa Fofana, and they will, during their short stay, train both the developmental coaches (physical education teachers) and female coaches. The Scandinavian visitors will also pay a courtesy call on the SoS for Youth and Sports, as well as the Gambia Football Association and the Gambia National Olympic Committee. They will also visit SoS Children’s Village in Bakoteh and prominent football academies in the country.

Briefing journalists on the visit of the Swedish, Ebou Faye, Secretary General of the Gambia Football Coaches Association, said their guests’ Gambian trip came on the heel of the trip to Sweden of four Gambian coaches earlier this year. He said the Gambia Football Coaches Association has an exchange programme with their counterparts that will run for four years during which the two parties will work hand-in-hand to improve the standard of football coaching in the Gambia.

Caj Hjelm, on behalf of his visiting colleagues, said they are delighted to be associated with the exchange programme which is aimed at raising the standard of football coaching in the West African nation. Caj emphasised the need for sports, particularly football to be treated in schools, noting that students in Sweden combine both education and football.

For his part, Mr Abdou Salam Jammeh, CAF education officer, who doubles as development officer of the Gambia Football Association, lauded the initiative noting that the two countries have a history in sports partnership, citing Gambia’s twinning with Sweden in 2000 under a special partnership between CAF and UEFA