A week after the chaotic election of Abdoulaye Fall as head of the Senegalese Football Federation, Sport News Africa can reveal several major malfunctions that occurred before and during the election. This information is enough to fuel the various appeals and legal proceedings being prepared behind the scenes.

The election scheduled for Saturday, August 2 at the FSF turned into a farce: stretching out for more than twenty hours, it was finalized in the early hours of Sunday morning amidst gendarmes, a bailiff, protests and without one of the main candidates, Mady Touré, who decided to withdraw even before the second round, denouncing "corruption on the part of the camp of Abdoulaye Fall" , the winner of the election.

While the new president contested his opponent's remarks, insisting on the "huge projects" particularly to "solve the infrastructure problems" , the majority of observers present on site at the CICAD in Diamniadio were particularly shocked by the turn of events. "I've never seen anything like it ," several of them said when interviewed by Sport News Africa , which compiled several serious malfunctions during the election.

Elections to the Senegalese Professional Football League as a trigger

Of the seven candidates originally declared, two of them withdrew to join one of the big names (Moustapha Kamara joined the outgoing president, Augustin Senghor, and Abdoulaye Thierry 'Titi' Camara supported Abdoulaye Fall).

Unlike many federations that lock down any opposition to favor a single candidate, the Senegalese electoral process allowed for genuine opposition between different factions of national football. In fact, each individual freely put forward their arguments and agenda in an intense campaign leading up to the elections to the LSFP, the Senegalese Professional Football League, held four days before the FSF vote.

Babacar Ndiaye, president of Teungueth FC and supporter of Mady Touré, narrowly won (43 votes against 37), beating Abdoulaye Saydou Sow, president of AS Kaffrine and a supporter of candidate Abdoulaye Fall. This was a disappointment for the Fall camp, which had not anticipated defeat among the professionals. This was enough to restart the vote count for the major federal election on Saturday.

Lack of state and ministerial control

Gathered at the CICAD in Diamniadio, the Abdou Diouf International Conference Centre, the audience listened to a speech by the Minister of Sports, Khady Diène Gaye, as a preamble. "To ensure the smooth running of the work of this General Assembly, I ask the Director General of Sports and the President of the Electoral Commission to scrupulously ensure compliance with regulatory and statutory provisions ," she explained.

Taking leave of the assembly, the minister left the premises, leaving the Director General of Sports and the Secretary General of the Olympic Committee, Seydina Omar Diagne, to remain on site to "ensure the smooth running" of the election. The problem was that the latter was largely nowhere to be found—his passivity was highlighted by numerous witnesses—and officials, in general, were overwhelmed by events.

Apart from the voting method decided at the last moment by the electoral commission, which consisted of grouping everything on a single ballot (which provoked protests from Abdoulaye Fall and Mady Touré and delayed the election by several hours), the president of this electoral commission did not really have an authority figure since he was not fully supported by certain members of his own commission.

Having requested the services of a bailiff specially dispatched for the occasion, he struggled to maintain calm amidst the unrest and protests from both sides. All of this, of course, was met with laxity from representatives of CAF, the FIFA regional office in Dakar, and FIFA itself, with Colonel-Major Djibrilla Hima Hamidou, the former president of the Nigerien federation recently elected to the FIFA Council.

Phone in the voting booth and security breaches

While the last elections were occasionally punctuated by a few squabbles, Augustin Senghor's victories suffered no massive protests, nor organizational problems. However, on Saturday, August 2, 2025, the situation literally descended into anarchy despite the strong presence of the gendarmes.

Unable to plan the simplest elements of an election (confidentiality process, searches to avoid problems in the voting booth), the federation even found a way to not provide enough food for the delegates' dinner! A grotesque circus, almost unheard of in a football federation in 2025, which symbolized the "huge projects" dear to Abdoulaye Fall.

After an interminable wait and the start of voting, the president of the electoral commission and representatives of CAF and FIFA were accosted because of the security breaches; in this case, the possibility of going to the polling booth with a phone to take a photo of one's vote. "Yes, we will improve that ," several elected officials were promised, unable to believe their ears, even though voting had already started!

Without actually resolving the problem, officials tried to maintain calm inside CICAD while the election was being played out elsewhere: in a corner of the parking lot.

100,000 CFA francs in a car in the parking lot

Rumors quickly spread among the audience: Abdoulaye Fall's camp was accused of paying off certain voters. While rumors existed in every election, they were supported by a rather crude modus operandi.

At CICAD, touts directed delegates who had voted for Fall to the parking lot where they were taken care of by three different people – including a certain Moustapha, who was on everyone's lips – who handed them envelopes of cash containing 100,000 CFA francs (just over 152 euros) from a car.

To get to the bottom of this, a cameraman from Mady Touré's team posed in the middle of the night as a voter for Abdoulaye Fall. One of the touts sent him to the parking lot where he received 100,000 CFA francs. Returning to CICAD, he went to find the president of the electoral commission, who personally contacted the bailiff to notify him of the facts and the money handed over.

This proved an attempt at "bribery" for Touré, while the Fall camp believed that it meant nothing at all; this young man was a cameraman and not an official delegate.

Hotel in Saly, WhatsApp messages and legal proceedings

Stunned by the voting process, Génération Foot president Touré withdrew before the second round against Fall. "I call on the Senegalese government to take full responsibility," declared the man who had acknowledged his defeats in 2013 and 2021 against Senghor. "The country does not deserve this. What happened today in Dakar, during this election, is disgraceful."

Less vocal, the other candidates thought no less, from the ever-diplomatic Senghor to Oumar Ndiaye and Aliou Goloko. While the Fall camp believed they had won fairly and disputed the possible vote-buying, officials were shown rather ambiguous WhatsApp messages, clearly suggesting manipulation.

Other elements, including the accommodation of numerous regional delegates in a hotel in Saly at the expense of the Fall camp, raise questions about the bias of the vote. These elements, in addition to the anarchic organization, were reported quite high up in the Senegalese state apparatus.

While the government has not officially interfered in the election, several legal proceedings could soon be announced. This could lead to a new headache and a long, behind-the-scenes battle, from Dakar to Zurich, to decide whether Abdoulaye Fall will be the legitimate president of the Senegalese Football Federation for the next four years.