The Gambian President Adama Barrow has held the Jammeh regime responsible for the poor state of the country’s national stadium.

Speaking to reporters during an inspection tour to the stadium in Bakau, Barrow described the ban on the country’s only stadium as “unfortunate”, saying that the Jammeh regime should have done the renovation.

“It’s really unfortunate that our stadium is banned [from hosting home matches] and this was a grant from China. I think the previous government has taken care of this. This is not our fault and is not our making. But it’s now our responsibility to make sure that we fix this stadium. We will fix it and think about building another one,” he said.

The Gambia’s stadium is among dozens of stadiums banned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) from hosting international matches.

Among the reasons cited by CAF for the ban were sub-standard football pitch, poor and inadequate dugout areas for team officials, the lack of fixed seating for fans, floodlights, emergency medical facilities and an electronic scoreboard.

The countries banned from hosting international matches are Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Eswatini, Eritrea, Lesotho etc.