Following the abandonment of the highly anticipated match between Amdallai and Jambarr, Jegan Senghore, the player-coach of Amdallai, expressed his disappointment about the circumstances that led to this decision.
According to Senghore, since the start of this year’s Nawettaan season, Amdallai was permitted by the football association to use their player registration master list from the previous season. This arrangement allowed them to attach passport photos of the newly registered players for their opening game Juwany.
However, after their first match, the tournament’s [Nawettaan] match commissioner, Mr. Joof, informed Senghore that Amdallai needed to update their player registration master list, as all other teams in the competition had already done so. Before their second game, Mr. Joof reiterated this request, instructing Amdallai to complete the update before their third match.
According to Senghore, while Amdallai was willing to comply with this directive, the football association’s secretary, Ndey Cham—who was responsible for overseeing the process—was out of the country attending the Magal pilgrimage in Touba. As a result, the update to the player registration master list was delayed.
Upon Cham’s return, Senghore claimed to have traveled from Amdallai to Essau last Monday to submit the necessary documents, including the newly prepared passport photos, to finalize the new master list. However, Cham was unavailable at the time, and Senghore was informed that a committee member was temporarily handling Cham’s duties. Senghore proceeded to deliver the required documents to this interim official.
On the morning of the match [Wednesday], Senghore was contacted by the acting secretary to help finalize the transfer of the players’ passport photos to the new master list. Once again, he made another trip to Essau to ensure that the updated list would be ready in time for the match.
Despite completing the required paperwork and preparing for the match prior to kickoff, Senghore claimed that Secretary Cham later insisted that the new master list could not be used, and furthermore, that the newly registered players—who had already participated in the previous two games—could not be fielded. Senghore and his team objected to these terms, arguing that most of the players on the old master list were no longer with the team and that only nine players from that list were currently available for selection.
Despite their protests and pleas for the game to proceed with the new list, Secretary Cham maintained her position. As a result, Amdallai refused to play under these conditions, leading to the abandonment of the match. Senghore described the situation as unfair, especially since the directive to update the master list had come from the association’s matchday commissioners.
As of now, the football committee has not issued any official response or comment regarding the claims made by Amdallai’s coach or the controversy surrounding the match’s abandonment.
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