Kemo Ceesay Elected Gambia Football Federation President

Kemo Ceesay | Image by The Gambiana

Kemo Ceesay has been elected president of the Gambia Football Federation at the federation's Elective Congress, taking 41 of the 77 votes cast to see off two opponents and succeed Lamin Kaba Bajo. He takes charge of a federation that, by his own account, draws close to 80 percent of its funding from FIFA, with a pledge to build the country's first professional football league.

Ceesay defeated Musa Jammeh, who took 24 votes, and Sadibou Kamaso, who took 12, to win the presidency outright. He told supporters after the result that the outgoing administration had already drawn up a business plan for a professional league, though the financing and structure still need work. Building it will test a federation that leans on FIFA for the bulk of its budget, a dependency Ceesay flagged himself when he appealed for continued backing from FIFA, the Confederation of African Football and the West African Football Union.

Gambia has talked about turning its domestic competition professional before; the harder part has always been funding it without the FIFA development grants that cover most of the federation's running costs now. Ceesay takes on a a business plan, not a budget, and his manifesto promises unity and professionalisation without saying where the extra revenue comes from beyond the bodies already paying most of the bill. What happens over the next year, whether he can attract sponsors, broadcasters or private investment beyond FIFA and CAF, will say more about the win.