In Burkina Faso, the head of the junta also wants to have control over the football federation

It is now official: on August 31, Oumarou Sawadogo was appointed the new president of the Burkinabe Football Federation (FBF) for a term of four years. There had been no suspense surrounding this election for several weeks now, since this retired colonel major, presented as the candidate of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the head of the ruling junta, was the only one in the running. The two men know each other very well: the new president of the FBF was in fact the superior of the transitional president in the military region of Kaya, before his coup d’état in September 2022.

Elected with a score of 99.02% (203 votes out of 210), Oumarou Sawadogo is the ninth president of the FBF since its creation in 1960. He takes office a few days before two matches of the Stallions qualifying for the 2025 African Cup of Nations: in Senegal on September 6, then against Malawi in Bamako four days later (the Stade du 4-Août in Ouagadougou is not approved by the Confederation of African Football).

This is not the first time that a military man has held this position. Before him, Colonel Souley Mohamed, General Honoré Nabéré Traoré and Colonel Major Sita Sangaré had also headed the football federation. During the campaign, Captain Traoré’s junta did everything to ensure that Colonel Major Oumarou Sawadogo did not encounter the slightest obstacle. His predecessor, Lazare Banssé, elected in 2020 and who had considered running for a new term, was asked not to run again. The now ex-president of the FBF then called on Burkinabe football players to unite around a consensual candidate supported by all.

Support obtained through pressure

Facing Colonel Major Oumarou Sawadogo, two other candidates had also withdrawn from the race for the presidency. These are former internationals Jonathan Pitroipa (84 selections between 2016 and 2019), who played in particular in Hamburg (in Germany) and Rennes (in Ille-et-Vilaine), and Rahim Ouédraogo (21 selections between 1999 and 2007), who spent most of his career in the Netherlands. The first saw his candidacy invalidated due to the absence of certain administrative documents, while the second withdrew and decided to ally himself with Oumarou Sawadogo, of whom he will be the first vice-president. “Rahim Ouédraogo is a businessmanexplains a Burkinabe journalist who requested anonymity. He doesn’t want any trouble and quickly agreed to support the colonel major.”

Ali Guissou, the president of the football section of the Customs Sports Association, winner of the Division 1 championship in 2023 and 2024, long contested the invalidation of his file before also rallying to the government candidate. The day before the election, Ali Guissou went to the home of Rahim Ouédraogo, where he had organized a dinner bringing together several Burkinabe football players. “Ali Guissou arrived a little after the end of the meal, everything happened in a friendly and constructive atmosphere”confirms a local source. The leader reportedly gave up appealing the invalidation of his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and finally agreed to support Oumarou Sawadogo due to various pressures, sometimes very strong, of which he and some of his close associates were the target. “I don’t want to debate it.”answers Ali Guissou.

One of the members of his list, Inoussa Tapsoba, president of the ASEC Koudougou club and assistant accountant at the finance department, was thus assigned to the regional directorate of sports and leisure of the Sahel, in Dori, in the north of Burkina Faso, in the heart of the zone controlled by jihadist groups. Some opposition parties have denounced the junta’s interference in the affairs of Burkinabe football, without much effect. “There was clearly a candidate designated and imposed by the government: will the new president of the federation have free rein to work? asks a club manager. “Since local football, and in particular national teams, depends very largely on the State financially, no important decision can be taken without an agreement from above.”