Gambia are reacting favourably to Friday's FIFA Under-17 World Cup Nigeria 2009 draw held in Abuja.

The Gambia fall in Group C of the draw along with Asian U-16 Champions Iran, Colombia and Holland who knocked the Baby Scorpions out of the 2005 competition in Peru.

Seedy Kinteh, president of the Gambia Football Association, speaking exclusively to Gambia Sports Online on Saturday, said "We are very happy with the draw; it's a fair grouping for the Gambia." Asked about the possibility of losing again to the Dutch, the GFA boss scuffed, "We are not afraid of any team, whether it's Holland or Brazil or whoever."

Kinteh said the outcome of the draw will help in shaping the preparation programme of the Gambian team. "Now that we know our opponents we will try to engage in warm-up matches with teams with a similar type of game to theirs. "The key to our Nigeria campaign will be our preparation and we intend to intensify our plans for our overseas training camp.

The plans included a month-long tour of England from the beginning of September, which seems to have changed. "We will now travel to England in the second week of September after meeting Nigeria in a friendly here in Banjul on September 5th," Kinteh disclosed. "As part of our plans for the England tour we will play a series of warm up matches against academy teams including those of Arsenal and Chelsea Football Clubs and also play against the USA team which have also qualified for the World Cup.

"Our delayed departure to Europe will also allow the marketing team of the GFA to launch the fundraising campaign for the team while it is still in town," Kinteh concluded. From England the Gambian team are scheduled to make a week-long stopover in Accra for a test match against the Black Starlets, knocked out of the final qualification round by the Baby Scorpions.