By Momodou Jarju
The Gambia’s women national team dubbed the Queen Scorpions has been drawn in Group B alongside two-time champions Senegal, Guinea, and Sierra Leone in the forthcomingWAFU Zone A Senior Women’s Cup.
The draw was held on Wednesday by the West African Football Union (WAFU) at its head office in Kololi, The Gambia. Hosted by Mauritania, the championship spans from the 18th to 31st May 2025 with hosts pitted against Guinea Bissau, Mali, and Liberia in Group A.
Neighbours Senegal are back-to-back champions of the championship which is in its third edition. The sub-region’s reigning champions would be aiming for a hat-trick of wins when the competition tees off in three days from today.
The Queen Scorpions were bronze medalists in the last edition and head coach Mariama Bom Sowe and her charges would be aiming to accomplish a better feat this time around by reaching the final and hopefully winning the trophy.
The Gambia and Sierra Leone willpitch up this Tuesday at Stade Cheikha Boidya for their opener before facing defending champions Senegal next Thursday at the same venue and wrapped up their group game next Sunday against Guinea at Stade Ksar.
Meanwhile, the Gambian queens have been training for a couple of weeks at the National Technical Training Centre in Old Yundum ahead of the tournament with the quartet of Ellen Gai, Ruggy Joof, Mbassey Darboe, and Catherine Jatta all arriving from Ghana and Liberia respectively joining the fold in training this week.
The team played a friendly against the Gambia Women’s U-20 team on Wednesday at the National Technical Training Centre in Yundum where they beat the Young Queen Scorpions 3-2. The match was part of both teams’ preparations for their upcoming engagements as the Young Queen Scorpions are expected to leave Banjul for Abidjan today in the evening for the second leg against Côte d’Ivoire in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
