Omar Sey is the outgoing President of The Gambia Football Association (GFA). In an exclusive interview with Dodou Bojang of GRTS Radio, Mr Sey spoke of his early days in sports, particularly football, his achievements, shortcomings among other burning issues.

Excerpts.
Those of us who are young in the trade of sport must have heard that Omar Sey has been in the game for quite a long time. So if you can precisely tell us when he started it all in football.
In all, it was started at Saint’s Augustine. I played for the senior team at Saint Augustine.  I also played for a second division team by the name Atomic in 1959 to 1960. I didn’t stay long in football, then I went into refereeing. In 1962,  I qualified as a referee, and I referred at first and second division here in The Gambia before leaving for further studies in the United States. I came back in 1970, and became Secretary-General of the football association. I was the Secretary-General for seven years. I also became the Director of Youth and Sports in 1973 while I was Secretary-General of football Association in those days. I continued refereeing and stopped in 1977. I was a FIFA referee and I refereed CAF and FIFA matches all over the continent.  I was elected into Caf executive in 1976 and served in the executive for 14 years from 1976 to 1990. I was in FIFA for ten years, from 1980 to 1990. I was a member of referee committee in FIFA for 10 years and for the last two years I was in the executive of FIFA as well. I was a member of the Finance Committee for FIFA and the World Cup Organising Committee as well.  I was also, from 1976 to 1988, the President of the Gambia National Olympic Committee (GNOC), which I helped to found.  I founded the GNOC of The Gambia. I supposed you wanted to know the  background, this is my background, in  brief. So I have been in sports for life and I have enjoyed it and I think it is a wonderful lesson for  me.

You left sports for politics. What prompted you to leave sports for politics then?
Well, I don’t know exactly what prompted me. When I went into politics in 1985, I was still in sports and I never intended to leave sports for politics, but I thought I could be in both. So I was a Member of Parliament (MP). Being an MP from 1985 to 1987 I continued in sports.  I was very active in football and sports, because I continued to be in Caf and FIFA, so for me it was not leaving sports for politics. But the development in 1987, when I won an elections as a member of parliament, I was appointed Foreign Minister by the then President and even then I thought I could continue with both.  But it became evident that  I couldn’t carry out both and I was given a choice- either to continue with sports or to continue with politics. It was  a very difficult decision, but in the end I was swayed to continue to be the Foreign Minister. Then I had to give up  my positions in Caf and in FIFA.  That’s how I went into full-time politics up to 1994.
You must have missed sports when you left it for politics, didn’t you?

Very very much, very very much. In 1990, I only attended the opening of the World Cup.  I had to leave because I was in politics. I couldn’t go for the whole World Cup. In 1994, I couldn’t go for the World Cup and in1992 I couldn’t go for the African Cup of Nations.  It was a miserable period because I had been going to the World Cup and the Cup of Nations. I started going to the World Cup in 1974 in Germany. Since then I only missed it in 1990 and 1994. So you can imagine how much  I missed.

But in politics it was bit of experience for me. It was also a learning period for me.
When you returned to football, Gambian football was not where we expected it to be.  And fortunately for you and those working with you in the interim committee you have achieved something- Gambia has won CAF U-17 championship- Gambia has gone to the World Cup. Is this not a feeling for you?

Yes, I think I’ve been very fortunate and lucky too.  I was invited by a group of people last year to come and head an interim committee for a period of a year. I had misgivings because I had been away from football administration locally for so many years. So I agreed to come and serve as interim president for a year. When I took up the job, I gave it all my time. I spent hours and hours in the office with friends and colleagues. And I think looking back on the year I can look back with great satisfaction and pride that we have achieved a lot together with our other collaborators and other stakeholders. As you have indicated, we won the African Cup, little bit of luck in that too I supposed. We went to the World Cup and the performance was fantastic. Within the association we have managed to institute certain changes. Certain structures were put in place. The committees were restructured, particularly the organising committee which organises football matches, to run it in a very professional manner  in a way that meets the standard and the requirement of FIFA and CAF.

We have brought back stability, order and principles into the running of football during this past year. It has not all been perfect though; we have had our ups and downs. But I think on the whole we can look back with great satisfaction that during this past year we have sown the seeds for development. We have laid down structures we can utilise to further advance the game of football.
What were your priorities when you first came in as far as administration is concerned? In short, where did you start to m make sure these achievements were realised?

My first priority was to bring about stability and to bring everybody who is interested and willing on board in the running of football and I think we have succeeded in that. The enthusiasm and the response were fantastic for the year. A lot of people came. Secondly, we entrusted committees with responsibilities. My colleagues in the executive committee performed well. Members of the various sub-committees that we put in place performed very well. We gave them the opportunity, the free hand and we motivated them to perform and they did perform to their ability. We also attempted at structuring even the secretariat. We put certain things in place.  When I came, the offices were not worthy of their names and I thought the atmosphere under which we operate should be improved. And we embarked on doing that. Today, we may not be where we wanted, but at least we are not where we used to be because there is an improvement in the atmospheric condition of where we worked.  But obviously whatever you do, some people are bound to pick faults out of it but  I don’t mind that. I don’t mind criticism, particularly constructive criticism. But as I said we are quite satisfied that over this past year we have brought about change. We’ve contributed significantly towards further development of football and we are grateful for the cooperation received from the government and the sponsors, and also from the public at large because as I said we have got a tremendous response from all sectors of the community.
You must have had difficulties during this year.  If you can share with us what were these difficulties and how you managed to over come them.

First of all, the difficulties were organising football matches.  We had difficulties in this area. We brought in culture of discipline and culture of adhering to rules. Rules must be laid down and they must be obeyed.  So if one breaks a rule, there must be consequences and one must suffer the consequences.  When we set the Organising Committee which I took up as chairman for the first time because hitherto the Organising Committee was headed by people outside the executive but I took it up because it is the pivot of football. The Organising Committee which organises matches, supervises the  running of matches, looks at the results of matches, approves them, looks at report from commissioners and match inspectors and looks at what happens in a match, discipline of the player, the spectators.  And these people may take disciplinary action against people who have not adhered to the rules. This was the first difficulty we had. It was not easy to get people adhered to these rules. Because if a referee report shows that someone insults the referee and we say two matches automatic suspension and they are notified immediately, some will grumble because they ignorance of the rules. But we did this successfully over the year and it must continue within the association if football is to be run properly.