The Gambia are planning to stage an international friendly against Gabon in the New Year as both countries look forward to using the FIFA  international friendly calendar to keep their players busy having failed to qualify to the final rounds of the 2010 joint World Cup and Nations Cup qualifiers.

The president of the Gambia Football Association, Seedy Kinteh, has told Observer Sports that they have requested to play the Black Panthers of Gabon in Paris, France, on February 11. The GFA boss revealed that his financially-stretched association is working with main partners Africell and other stakeholders to raise the needed fund for the Paris warm-up tie.

The Gambia came very close to achieving their first-ever Nations Cup dream after a hard-fought 1-1 draw against rivals Senegal in the final qualifier tie saw them settle only one point behind group leaders Algeria in Group Six table. The Scorpions’ hopes of progressing to the final qualifier stage as one of the best losers were dashed by CAF’s unpopular formula of determining the second-placed teams.

Despite the narrow miss, however, the Scorpions went ahead to benefit from monthly FIFA rankings as they start the New Year as the 75th best team in the world and 18th in Africa - their best-ever rankings in football history.