Mr Alex Dacosta, the interim chairman of the National Sports Council - the body responsible for the organisation and monitoring of sports in the country - has revealed that he and his team will do their utmost to take Gambian sports to where it should be.

The Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, Mr Sheriff Gomez, yesterday unveiled Mr Dacosta as the new chairman of the nine-man interim council replacing the Mr Omar Sallah-led council that was earlier this month dissolved after the expiry of its four-year term. Other members of the interim council are Mr Kunkung Jobarteh (Deputy Permanent Secretary, Department of State for Basic and Secondary Education), Modou Gaye (Deputy Inspector General of the Gambia Police Force), Bakary Jammeh (General Manager of Elton), George Gomez (Executive Director of GNOC), Malang Jasseh (Director of Youth and Sports), Ousman Wadda (GPA), Mrs Cecilia Jallow (Gamstar) and Sheikh Tijan Faye (retired athlete).

In his maiden speech after stepping into the post that remains pivotal to the development of Gambian sports, Mr Dacosta, who doubles as the Chief Communications Officer at the Public Utility Regulatory Authority(PURA), said with commitment and consistent support from the Youth and Sports department, his council will make a difference. “With my experience, coupled with that of my able council members, we will make a difference,” he told Observer Sports shortly after yesterday’s inauguration ceremony at the Independence Stadium.

“A lot of them [the new members] have served before and they are experienced. So we have a blend of old and new which is the way it should be. We hope that  we are going to work as a team and take sports where it should be in the Gambia.” Dacosta, who had also served as senior communication officer with the Medical Research Council (MRC), admitted  that Gambian sports is going through trying times, but was quick to add that these are based on a number of factors. “We forget that we are a very small country and we are not blessed with lot of resources, but we are blessed with talents. As our President keeps saying, it is not only money that matters but also the will of the people.

We need to have purpose and we need to set goals for ourselves. If we set the goal that we only want to be champions in The Gambia, we will only be Gambian champions. But if we set ourselves a goal that we want to be champions in the world, we will be world champions. “We did it during the 2005 Under 17 Championship and we can go beyond that if all hands are on deck.

We have to create excellence in sports and in so doing, we have to start from the basics. We have to know what is wrong and we try to put it right. I know it is going to be difficult because people always resist change, but in America there would not have been change if the people didn’t have commitment and we will use that as a blue-print and try to bring about a change of mentality which is a very important thing.” Sports associations.

Alex Dacosta said all sports associations that exist should exist for the Gambian people and should represent the Gambian people wherever they go. Vowing that his council will help to make the sports associations stronger, Dacosta added that the associations should in turn have the right governance structures in place. “Sports associations can no longer exist as a one-man show. That is not accepted and that is not the way to develop. They have to be more open and accept criticism so that we can reinvent and redefine and move forward.”