The Suspension of Nawettan football in Brikama due to the coronavirus is bound to be financially painful for the town’s top football club, Brikama United.
The Brikama Sports Committee took a decision to suspend this year’s summer football fiesta after the Government declared the country in a state of national curfew last week due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Nawettan football is the main source of income for the Brikama Sports Committee as they generate over two million dalalsi from match sales at the end of the year, and that money is used to fund the activities of the town’s top football team, Brikama United. But as a result of the suspension, the sports committee now face an uncertain future of financing the football team.
“This is a difficult situation and we took an abnormal decision in abnormal situation, Lamin Dembajang, 1st Vice President of the Brikama Sports Committee tells The Chronicle. “We have to accept the reality and cancel the nawettan with all its ramifications.”
However, the sports committee is planning to use other means to generate funds for the team before the start of the next domestic league season. “We are thinking about creating a ‘go fund me’ account for citizens of Brikama to help us, “a desparate 1st vice president of Brikama committee, Lamin Dembajang said. “It might not compensate the huge revenue lost, but to sustain Brikama United and other teams under us, we have to seek fund.”
It could be recalled that Brikama Sports Committee spent over 1.5 million dalasis on the team’s recent participation in the CAF Club championship, an amount the committee were expected to recover from this year’s Nawettan season. However, the committee’s hope is now on the FIFA Covid-19 relief funds to be disbursed by the football federation to all national teams. Even though we cannot report on how much each team will receive.
Muhammed Lamin Drammeh is a freelance sports journalist.