He said, "The idea behind the friendly is to market the team in Europe as part of the African and World Cup qualifiers. Part of my project is to expose the players in Europe and the world market so that other teams will want to play The Gambia. We have done extremely well in the world rankings and any team will want to take us for an international friendly as part of their warm up matches".

He said a delegation from The Gambia Football Association will travel to Paris on Thursday evening ahead of The Gambia versus Gabon international friendly encounter in France. He said that members of the team will alsotravel to France on Sunday February 8th 2008 and will hold a training session with them the next day.

The Scorpions will play Gabon on Tuesday and will return to their clubs on Wednesday.

According to Coach Put, the Scorpions will be playing without Captain Ebou Sillah who is currently nursing an injury and also use the services of Gambian player Mustapha Trawally currently playing in France.

Coach Put commended President Jammeh for paying for their trip to France pointing out that in 6 to 8 months time, the team might be invited to take part in international friendlies with other countries which can bring income to the country.

The senior national team coach also expressed his plans to stage another test match in London come August.

"Between now and August, I will also organize another friendly match in Banjul for the Scorpions," he added.

The squad to travel to France is as follows:

Musa Bajaha, Joseph Gomez,Pa Saikou Kujaba, Pa Modou Jagne, Abdou Jammeh, Matthew Mendy, Ebrima Sohna, Tijan Jaiteh, Njogu Demba, Mustapha Jarju,Aziz Corr Nyan, Ousman Jallow, Njogu Demba, Abdoulie Corrand Abdoulie Ken Mansally, Mustapha Trawally, Momodou Ceessay, Ebrima Sawaneh,andSainey Nyassi.