The Guinean Under-17 team will arrive in Banjul today to engage their Gambia counterparts in a warm-up match scheduled for Saturday, at the Independence Stadium, Bakau.

Both sides will be banking on Saturday’s match to mark the start of preparations for the 8th edition of  the Africa U-17 Championship to be hosted in Algeria in mid-March. The Gambian football authorities have revealed that the weekend friendly against the young Syly Nationales will pave the way for a series of warm-up matches ahead of the Algeria finals, which will double as qualifiers for the FIFA Under 17 World Cup to be staged in Nigeria later the same year.

The Gambia U-17 team, under the stewardship of Egyptian coach Tarik Siagy, will make their first appearance in the biennial youth event since 2005, when they lifted the title after out-classing Ghana in the final played in Banjul.

The team, which remain the country’s sole representatives in continental football, have been promised better preparations by the Gambia Football Association, who demonstrated this by setting up a special marketing committee tasked with the responsibility of raising the needed funds to fully equip them.