The achievements that The Gambia recorded in football  of recent, have convinced the general membership of the West African Football Union (WAFU) for the country to host its Headquarters.

The president of the Gambia Football Association (GFA) Seedy Kinteh has declined the offer of president of WAFU in favour of its headquarters to be in The Gambia. The headquarters according to the FA supremo would bring more benefits to Gambians rather than his presidency as the secretariat will employ only Gambian staffs on full time basis.

The GFA has received several achievements but this is by far the biggest achievement recorded at administrative level.The Gambian FA boss at the weekend returned from the WAFU congress held in the Ghanaian capital, Accra on the 13th of August, 2011. Fourteen (14) out of the 16 member associations attended the event with the exception of Cape Verde and Benin.

Kinteh told Observer Sports that the congress decided to divide the union into two zones; A and B. Zone A consists of nine countries while Zone B consists of seven. The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry,  Cape Verde, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mauritania make up Zone A whilst Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Togo, Ivory Coast, Benin and Burkina Faso make up Zone B.

Kinteh who was speaking at his office in Banjul on Tuesday revealed that out of the nine countries from Zone A, five were interested in hosting the Headquarters of the union but he was able to convince all the delegates to settle on The Gambia.

“I was first offered the presidency which I turned down for the simple reason that I wanted The Gambia to host the Headquarters of the union. The Headquarters would be permanent and it will not move again and will also employ only Gambians while the presidency is a two-term rotation. Five out of the nine countries were all interested but I was able to convince all of them to come into a consensus and settled on The Gambia. So this is the first of its kind in The Gambia,” he said.

The GFA boss further revealed that the Headquarters for Zone B will remain in Ivory Coast, adding that after his withdrawal in running for the presidency, five candidates were put forward to contest for the position before they also settled on the Senegalese FA president Augustine Senghore as the head of the union for next two years until 2013.

 “The presidency will then rotate between Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Mali in that other. Guinea Conakry presented the name of Almami Camara, the second vice president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) as their candidate but the constitution disqualified him because only presidents of national associations can be candidates,” he explained.

The FA presidents of Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Mali will be the first, second and third vice-presidents of Zone A respectively while the executive members also include The Gambia Football Association president, the FA presidents of Guinea Conakry, Cape Verde, and Mauritania.

The president of Zone B is Kwesi Nyantakyi of Ghana while the FA presidents of Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Niger will be the first, second and third vice-presidents respectively. The FA presidents of Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo  are also executive members. Kinteh also revealed that the executive will meet to look for a suitable place in the country to host the Headquarters and draw its programme of activities.