Benin: row over league format

On 22 December 2020, the Beninese Football Federation opted for a professional league of 36 clubs. The decision followed an extraordinary general assembly held in Grand-Popo. According to the decision-makers, the Super Ligue was to be played in two phases. The first, called the Ligue Pro, brings together 36 clubs split into 4 zones of nine teams. At the end of this first stage, the top four clubs in each zone qualify for the 16-club Super Ligue Pro. The rest drop into a 20-club Ligue Pro Suite for the second phase of the league.

In the Super Ligue Pro, where clubs from the same zone do not play each other, the winner represents Benin in the CAF Champions League preliminary rounds, while the runner-up enters the CAF Confederation Cup preliminary rounds. In the Ligue Pro Suite, clubs play each other in a tournament made up of two zones. The bottom two in each zone are relegated to Ligue 3, replaced by the top two of the third division, who go straight up to the top flight. Three years on, however, coaches and players have taken stock and find little enthusiasm for a reform that its architects never justified.

"There is a glaring gap in level"

"This zonal format makes things less competitive. There isn't really any competition. A club can be champion (of the Super Ligue) without necessarily having played all the others. Coton FC are champions of Benin today but did not play Avrankou Omnisports and Hodio FC, who nonetheless took part in the league," points out Feliciano Montcho, ASPAC left-back.

Victor Zvunka, Coton FC's coach, whose side retained their title after a long season, laments the lack of competitiveness towards the end of the league. "When you play a league and there is no relegation, in the last five games the bottom teams have nothing to fear, because you know that next season you'll be playing in the Ligue Pro again," he says. The assistant coach of Loto-Popo, Benin's runners-up, goes further and believes that "the original idea wasn't bad, but after three years you realise the format has shown its limits. There is a glaring gap in level in some zones", observes Ouzérou Abdoulaye.

"We need to move to a league of 14 or 16 clubs"

In recent years the standard of the Super Ligue has come in for heavy criticism. The country's representatives in CAF club competitions go out in the first round with disastrous records. Observers of local football say these poor results reflect the level of the league.

Among coaches, there is no shortage of proposals for going back to the old formula. "If we want to improve the quality of our league so that teams can progress, we need to move to a stage with 14 or 16 clubs and create a second division. The officials should get together and say the league will start with 4 groups of 9 clubs. We go back to the two phases. The top two teams in the Ligue Pro Suite go up to D1 and the bottom two go down," suggests French coach Victor Zvunka, whose career has taken in Toulouse, Guingamp, CR Belouizdad and Horoya FC.

Sakibou Madougou, assistant coach of Bani Gansè Fc, makes two suggestions. "I'd like to see the 16 Super Ligue Pro clubs plus the top two from the Ligue Pro Suite make up the first division. At a pinch, we keep the 16 SLP teams to form the first division and the remaining teams compete in the second division."

"If we keep the same mentalities, we will have the same problems"

Ouzérou Abdoulaye agrees, but remains undecided. "Maybe we will have to go back to a Ligue 1, 2 and 3 format, but if we keep the same mentalities we will always have the same problems. To move forward, we have to think about youth development and youth leagues. It's not the 36-club format that stops us meeting the licensing requirements or having youth teams. I think it's our behaviour that stops us performing", says the former Benin international.

In Benin, most members of the FBF Executive Committee have at least one club in the Super Ligue. And as soon as personal interests come into play, the people involved are never short of decisions to keep themselves in the top flight at the expense of the general interest.

Rachidi DOSSA