Feguifoot: 7 billion in debt, tensions and setbacks for Sory Doumbouya

It was in an electric atmosphere that this Feguifoot general assembly began. Right away, the journalists present were asked to leave the room before the start of the proceedings. This move raised questions. From the outset, the validation of the agenda was at the heart of discussions. The statutory members rejected the agenda proposed by the executive committee, demanding amendments on several contentious points.

Individual voting and member co-opting rejected

According to Abdoulaye Bah, president of Ted Afrique, more than 37 out of 53 voters opposed the proposed list for the composition of future committees, imposing a new designation process. “At the beginning, the agenda was rejected. Because we demanded that there be an amendment. We needed to discuss certain points in the agenda, namely the appointment of the district football members even though there are elected officials. The second point was the dispute between the president of the federation who took the president of Kaloum FC to court,” explained the executive committee member of Feguifoot.

Another sticking point during the Assembly was the debate about the voting method for electing members of the executive committee. The camp of president Sory Doumbouya argued for an individual ballot. This proposal was rejected by the statutory members who demanded adherence to the statutes. “There was a very heated debate. They asked us to choose between two, election by list or election by individual. We said that the statutes require an election by list. We fought for nearly a year for that to be the case. It's not today that we're going to decide to change that,” insisted Abdoulaye Bah, president of Ted Afrique (Ligue 2).

The financial report adopted… to unlock FIFA funds

The presentation of the financial report also sparked intense tensions. Several statutory members considered rejecting it due to shortcomings noted during discussions. Even though the financial statements were ultimately adopted, the former president of the Guinean amateur football league recalled that rejecting the report would result in FIFA suspending funding disbursements to Feguifoot. “The secretary general made us understand that if the financial statement is rejected, as long as it is not adopted, FIFA would not provide any funding to the federation. That forced us to accept the financial statement despite reservations. The provisional budget for the year 2026 was also voted on,” he said.

The adoption of the report hardly brings reassurance. It was in this context that a revelation about a debt of 7 billion Guinean francs (700,000 euros) within Feguifoot hit like a bombshell. No convincing justification was provided during the assembly to clarify this matter. During the discussions, the officials tried to provide details.

“Indeed, there are 7 billion Guinean francs of debt, but according to their explanations, these debts date from 2019. But in accounting, there’s a procedure to erase a debt. So in the end, we asked them to start this procedure so that those debts, which are not even justified, can be purely and simply cancelled from our books,” stated Abdoulaye Bah.

Furthermore, a subsidy of 40 billion Guinean francs (4 million euros) is expected. This financial windfall gives rise to hope but also raises questions given the precedent of unexplained debt. “For the 40 billion, a request for a subsidy has been made to the government... We are waiting for it to be implemented.”

Annulment of district member appointments and withdrawal of complaint against a statutory member

Among the discussions during the proceedings, a prominent topic was the complaint filed by the president of Feguifoot against the president of Kaloum FC. During the debates, the statutory members demanded the withdrawal of Sory Doumbouya’s complaint as well as the annulment of recent appointments in the various football districts. These conditions were accepted by the president of the body, announced Abdoulaye Bah, member of the executive committee of the Guinean Football Federation.

“We had structures within the federation capable of handling this type of dispute. The president promised that in the next two days, he would withdraw this complaint from the court,” he explained. And he continued: “The appointments of district officials had to be cancelled because there are already elected leaders at the grassroots level. This demand was accepted and the president committed to proceeding with this annulment within the next two days.”

At the end of this 19th Ordinary General Assembly, Sory Doumbouya remains in his position as president of Feguifoot but his room for maneuver is diminished. He comes away from this day with three setbacks. The list-based voting method is unfavorable to him for upcoming elections, his appointments in the districts are annulled, and the financial management of the body is now under scrutiny. All eyes are thus on FIFA. The day’s findings will determine whether Guinea remains master of its own fate, or if the specter of normalization draws a bit closer.