By Sulayman Bah
National Sports Council is set to announce the list of sporting associations that have 
met their new criteria, Foroyaa Sport can reveal.
The Council, which is a government institution tasked to oversee the functioning of national sporting associations, last month, set the criteria that affiliate sporting disciplines should meet in order to be considered as national bodies that are eligible to represent Gambia in international competitions.
The new regulations, require associations to be operating a verified bank account, a domestic league and to at least operate within regions in the country, among others.
A plethora of associations have already picked up the NSC membership application forms and some, Foroyaa Sport understands, are set to be vetted by an internal committee headed by Ebou Secka, NSC head of associations, for final verification between Thursday and Friday.
It is learnt that once this process is completed, the unveiling of the eligible associations will follow hopefully by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.
However, this newly instituted vetting process is being viewed by some as a ‘witch-hunt’, a claim that is rebutted by the officials.
Speaking to this publication yesterday afternoon, the council’s Executive Director Marcel Mendy, said: ‘This is not a witch-hunt as some of them see it. It’s aimed at ensuring that membership status are regularized in best standard practice. Things have to be done rightly and associations have to follow right procedures. Some (associations) have collected forms and have applied, some collected and are yet to show up while some have not picked any form altogether. You cannot claim to be an association without a functioning league or number of clubs or a bank account.’]]>
