Senegal on the roof of Africa: The improvement does not benefit local football

Eighteen years now after the transition to the professional era of the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 championships, local Senegalese football is still confronted with problems which include the precariousness of the clubs, the instability of the workforce, difficulties in establishing themselves in Africa and a lack of infrastructure. This bleak picture contrasts with the beautiful dynamics of the various national selections of Senegal, intractable on the continental scene. Questioned on the subject, experienced technician Malick Daf cites the lack of resources and marketing strategies as the main causes.

Over the past 5 years, Senegalese football has experienced an extraordinary improvement with the double coronation of the “Lions” A, during the 2021 African Cup of Nations (Can) in Cameroon and 2025 in Morocco, and the brilliant performances of the small categories in U15, U17 and U20. The local “Lions” also, in 2023, made an impression with their triumph in Algeria during Chan. But all these flashes of national selections on the African scene unfortunately do not benefit local Senegalese football which is struggling to take off. The professional championship, launched in 2009, is far from being attractive like that of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, among others. Added to this is the precariousness of clubs and players, the instability of squads, the difficulties for clubs to establish themselves at continental level, and the lack of infrastructure. Even if, it must be recognized, enormous efforts are being made to move the lines and develop local football. For the technician Malick Daf, current coach of Teungueth Fc, the problem would find its origin in the viability of the economic model of clubs and leagues. “The real problem is the lack of resources. Most Senegalese clubs live in precarious conditions. Without the support of the State and a good marketing strategy with sponsors ready to spend money to support local football, the championship will not soon reach the current standing of our national teams,” he indicated. According to the former Senegalese international, if today the country’s various selections perform on the international scene, it is largely thanks to the quality of training from academies such as Génération Foot, Diambars, Dakar Sacré Cœur and Darou Salam, but also and above all thanks to the two technical centers Jules François Bocandé of Toubab Dialaw and Youssoupha Ndiaye of Guéréo. “These two centers of the Senegalese Football Federation allow the selections to work well by making periodic groupings, morning and evening, with well-defined programs and friendly matches on the weekend to complete the preparation courses. So we had to inject a lot of money to put in place these infrastructures which continue to give us a lot of satisfaction. This is what our clubs are missing,” regrets Malick Daf.

The day after the coronation of the local “Lions” in 2023 in Algiers, many observers predicted a better future for local football. Indeed, they believed that this feat of Pape Thiaw’s men would rub off on the championship which could finally take off. But the reality was quite different, since the Senegalese clubs did not feel the fallout from this triumph. Their repetitive failures at the gates of African club competitions are a perfect illustration of this. According to Malick Daf who led Jaraaf to the group stage of the Caf Cup during the 2024 – 2025 season, Senegalese clubs are not able to compete with the big players on the continent. “Africa is another dimension. You need big budgets to afford good technical staff and high-level players. But we are too far from this requirement. For the moment, we do not have the means to hope to compete with big calibers like Al Ahly (Egypt), Zamalek (Egypt), TP Mazembe (DR Congo), Widad de Casablanca (Morocco) or even Mamelodi Sundows (South Africa). It takes a lot of resources to be able to build something solid over time,” underlined the Teungueth Fc technician. Therefore, Senegalese clubs are forced to reinvent themselves and adopt a more viable economic model to be as successful on the international scene.

The new management team of the Senegalese Professional Football League (Lsfp), under the leadership of President Babacar Ndiaye, will also have to make more efforts to find additional resources in order to support the clubs and guarantee the attractiveness and development of its competitions.

By Abdoulaye DEMBÉLÉ