The Gambia U-17 will host Senegal in an international friendly billed for July 25th 2009 at the Independence Stadium in Bakau, Seedy MB Kinteh, President of the Gambia Football Association informed Pointsports.

The match is part of preparations for the two time African U-17 champion’s participation in the World U-17 championship in October in Nigeria, which will comprise of 24 teams.

“The friendly will also be part of activities marking the July 22nd celebrations and will be played in two stages, as the return leg will be played in Senegal on August 15th, a week after the draw of this year’s FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria”, the GFA Boss stated.

He pointed out that the Senegalese U-17 team will be expected in Banjul next week.

Meanwhile as part of their build up to the campaign, the  African champions have been going through intensive training sessions and coupled with series of  test matches  with local teams.  Out of the numerous test matches the Darling Scorpions continued to raise their flag high and only lost once.

The draw will be staged at the upmarket Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja later than scheduled after it was changed to August 7 from an initial July 31 date.

Hosts Nigeria are expected to be seeded. They will also head a first round group to be based in Abuja.

The other top seeds will most likely be picked by the host nation, as was the case when the draw for the World Youth Championship was conducted in Egypt.

The competition will be played in eight cities - Abuja, Calabar, Ijebu-Ode, Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Enugu and Warri.

The line-up of the teams who have qualified for the 2009 FIFA World Under-17 Championship in Nigeria in October:

ASIA
Iran, Japan, South Korea, UAE

AFRICA
Nigeria, Gambia, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Malawi

EUROPE
Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Turkey

CONCACAF
Mexico, USA

OCEANIA
New Zealand

SOUTH AMERICA
Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia