2023-10-20 19:07:07
The crisis at the Guinean Football Federation (Feguifoot) is moving towards an end. Under a Standardization Committee, Conor, for two years, this entity will return to normal next November. Former vice-president of Feguifoot, Amadou Diaby gave an interview to Afriquematchs on October 18. He made revelations about his time at the FGF and his very eventful collaboration with Mamadou Antonio Souaré, former president of the Fédé.
1st vice-president of the FGF, under the presidency of Salifou Camara, Super V, Amadou Diaby served Antonio Souaré, in the same position. He says he went through hell, occupying “an empty shell,” for years. He would not be in the favor of his bosses. At the end of Super V’s mandate, “it was me that the world saw taking the reins of the Federation,” he said.
Shortly before the elections, he was contacted by Antonio Souaré. “He suggested that we work together. Since people accused me of wanting to take over the Federation, I accepted his proposal. Him the number one, me the First Vice-President.” If Amadou Diaby agreed to be in second position while Antonio found it in football, “it’s for unity. I wanted us to work hand in hand, to have a great team to develop Guinean football.” Diaby would even have been contacted by President Alpha Condé. “He said to me, ‘All this fighting you’re doing, you don’t want to show up? Is it Souaré? I replied: ”Yes, Mr. President. He is our solution, unlike Camara,” says the former FGF dignitary. He says he is a dynamic of change. “I was with him without demagoguery, without cheating. He was a brother, we were going to work together. He was elected president, me first vice-president, for the second time. We got to work.”
The beginning of the problem
The former first vice-president of the FGF is well known in the world of football. He has good relationships with the biggest leaders in world football. He believes he has played his role in moving the lines. “The first thing is the partnership between Guinea and France. The path was well cleared. In France, I presented him (Antonio Souaré) to Noël Le Graët, ex-president of the French Football Federation… I used my contacts so that we could have buses for our selections. For the first time, I’m bringing two buses back from the factory. With the FGF, I wanted the partnership to extend to other French-speaking Federations and not only to Guinea. Noël Le Graët had accepted.”
On the sidelines of a FIFA general assembly in Paris, the presidents of the French-speaking federations were received at the Élysée by President Emmanuel Macron. However, the initiator of the project, Amadou Diaby did not receive any information “from my president. The French Federation contacted me and I went. To the surprise of my President, it seemed to me that my presence was not appreciated by those around him.”
The decline
Things didn’t go as planned. Shortly after, a standoff began between the two men. Accused of racketeering within Syli National, and on the salary of Paul Put, former Guinea coach. Diaby was suspended by the Federation’s ethics commission on July 29, 2019, until the end of the investigation. On September 17, 2019, the verdict fell. In a press release, Feguifoot indicates that it looked into a “system of corruption between March 2018 and June 2019, in particular its role in the collection of a 10% commission” of Paul Put’s salary. Found guilty of corruption Amadou Diaby is banned from any football-related activity for seven years and fined 25,000 euros.
Amadou Diaby referred the matter to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport). On August 13, 2020, the latter noted numerous violations of the accused’s defense rights and procedural defects and canceled the suspension pronounced by the Commission and required the opening of a new procedure. Obstinate at first, then forced to respect the normal procedure in matters of justice, the ethics commission reinstates Amadou Diaby in his functions as First Vice-President of the FGF, on February 19, 2021.
Next November, a new Executive Committee will be elected to the Guinean Football Federation. Amadou Diaby has not yet applied to run for the position of president of the FGF, but all the lights are green. Lately, he has been among the guests of honor of the Confederation of African Football in all its activities. It would not be surprising to see him as the next strong man in the governing body of Guinean football.
Abdoulaye Pellel Bah
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