Football: Senegalese FA hit by a bonus oriented crisis
While the Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) is engaged in an international legal standoff before the CAS against CAF and the Moroccan Football Federation, another fight is taking place within the body. Behind the controversy over the AFCON 2025 bonuses, there is a brutal struggle for influence between President Abdoulaye Fall and a bloc of sixteen slingers.
Philemon MBALE · Author profile ·
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The coalition against CAF and the decision of its Jury d'Appel was only a façade. A few weeks after, the Senegalese Football Federation is going through a new internal crisis against a backdrop of financial stakes.
A group of sixteen members of the Executive Committee has now officially entered into rebellion. This "bloc of 16" denounces a management that it deems opaque and "with variable geometry". At the heart of the grievance: the award of performance bonuses decided, according to them, in a discretionary manner by the president, without prior collective validation.
The 13 million of discord
According to information relayed by the daily newspaper L'Observateur, bonuses in the region of 13 million CFA francs have been paid to some executives, upon approval by President Abdoulaye Fall. An amount that crystallizes tensions, especially since it would have benefited officials not included in the official delegation during the competition.
This selective distribution has created a deep sense of exclusion. The case of Mayacine Mar, former national technical director and an emblematic figure in the structuring of local football, has become a symbol of this frustration. His absence from the list of beneficiaries, revealed by the newspaper L'As, caused a shock wave. For many, dismissing such a technical craftsman while rewarding a small circle of leaders is a sign of "variable geometry" recognition that weakens the cohesion of the body.
Going public in retaliation?
In fact the case is more complex than it seems. According to sources close to the case contacted by Sport News Africa, the FSF has a highly accurate procedure manual. This document stipulates the applicable scales, theoretically making it unnecessary for the Executive Committee to approve the amounts due to the delegations.
This is where the war of interpretation begins. Two lists coexist: an official list (players, staff, ministry) and the list of the Executive Committee whose members receive a daily allowance of 60,000 CFA francs, in addition to covering travel and accommodation expenses during the AFCON 2025.
A governance at the crossroads
The crux of the conflict lies in the ambition of the sixteen slingers: not being on the official list, they nevertheless aspire to receive the 50 million CFA francs in bonuses granted by the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, as well as the bonuses reserved for the official delegation. When confronted with a request to receive from President Fall—who referred them to the Secretary General, Abdoulaye Saidou Sow—the protesters chose the strategy of public unpacking, even if it meant presenting only part of reality.
By choosing to make the case public after a failed hearing with President Fall, the slingers crossed a point of no return. What had been an administrative dispute became a matter of state. Between accusations of illegality on one side and suspicions of financial opportunism on the other, the FSF plays for its credibility, which is clearly at stake.