Bakary Y. Badjie, minister for Youth and Sports, has stated that he is surprised at the decision of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to disapprove the Independence Stadium hosting Gambia-Congo game after a preliminary inspection.

"We understood that inviting him (Muhammed Sidat, CAF inspector) was not for him to come and give approval. The idea was to invite an inspector to come and look at what we are doing and advise us on what to improve on as experts," he explained.

He acknowledged the fact that a lot of things have changed in terms of stadia construction but noted that that they were not doing a complete rehabilitation of the stadium.

"We were doing what can be done to gain temporal approval for the September Gambia-Congo match," he said.

He added that they took note of what the CAF inspector shared with them to improve on which includes media tribune, scoreboard, change the footlights, the outside perimeter fence, painting of the outside stadium and other areas.

"Our surprise was not what he said. Rather, we were expecting him to come back for a final inspection to give us a temporary approval. But four days after he left, they wrote and said 'Gambia Stadium cannot be used for the upcoming match'."

Minister Badjie pointed out that they had taken the advice of the inspector and CAF and would work on what is required for the stadium to gain approval.

"The ministry has taken the decision to invite the CAF inspector again after we finish working on the recommendation," he also said.

According to him, the stadium has always been on a ban that was never lifted.

"We were looking for temporary approval to play at home. However, when we are done with the work, we will call them (CAF) for a final inspection," he said.