By Sulayman Bah
Bakau United has accepted an offer from a top European football
firm to invest in the club for a five-year period, Foroyaa Sport can reveal.
The football agency, Doyen Sports Investments (DSI), brokered a deal, in principle, with Seedy Kinteh’s Bakau United last week following weeks of intense negotiations behind closed door.
This new development comes after the Bakau-based club hierarchy turned down DSI’s initial proposal thought to be under their valuation of the club.
But a consensus has now been reached between the Doyen Sports Investment’s Gambian-based agent and the club owner with the official signing of the contract expected this Friday.
The contract should have been signed last week but the process is being delayed by certain details which, it is said, could be completed this week as talks are still ongoing.
The sponsorship project offers the Doyen Group the right to financially invest in the club starting in 2015 Gambia Football Federation league season.
DSI is a private investment entity providing alternative funding to clubs and sports associations with a stake in the image rights of top footballers namely Barcelona duo NeymarJr and Xavi Hernandez.
The firm, through this five-year initiative, intends to increase competitiveness and promoting club success locally and internationally in the GFF league by recalling and signing a plethora of star names of Gambian players abroad to contracts with an average of 200, 000 to 300,000 dalasis pay scale which doubles their club wages .
Through this plan, Doyen Group aims to court Gambian internationals to the GFF domestic championship with the view to enable them to later compete in the CAF Champions League.
Among the players being considered, according an unimpeachable source, are striker Momodou Ceesay, Ousman Jallow, Gambian captain Mustapha Toubabo Jarju, Tijan Jaiteh, Saihou Gassama, Omar Jasseh, Ali Sowe, Abdou Jammeh (T. Boys), Hamza Barry, Sulayman Marreh and Alieu Darbo.
In the blueprint of the project, though yet to be made available to the press, the European investment agency targets to rake in the profits by trading Gambian players on third-party ownership basis to partnering European clubs, this paper understands.
FIFA has spoken tough against the third-party ownership of footballers in recent months, but it is yet to take any firm decision towards ending it.
Already, DSI has agreed a similar deal with Cameroon’s top flight club Cotton Sport.
Research has also shown that Juventus, Valencia, Getafe, Sporting Gijon, Benfica, Twente, Sevilla, Santos, Porto and Granada have previously worked with the organization specialized in sports marketing.
They sponsored La Liga champions Atletico Madrid in the 2012/2013 season.
Alvaro Morata, Manchester United’s Radamel Falcao, and Negredo are among the few players linked to the Doyen Group.
Bakau United officials have chosen not to comment until negotiations are done.
Doyen Sports Investments (DSI) is an organisation providing alternative funding to sports associations and hold stakes in several companies while also dealing in oil, gas, mining, energy, accommodation, construction, trading, retail and the like.]]>
