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Senegal inaugurated its international standard stadium in Diamniado on Tuesday. The reigning African champion no longer had any approved enclosures to host international matches for several months.
At last. Senegal, winner of the last African Cup of Nations (CAN) and first African nation in the FIFA rankings, now has a stadium with international standards. It was inaugurated Tuesday, February 22 in the jubilation in Diamniadio, about thirty kilometers from Dakar. Thousands of Senegalese traveled by bus or train to reach the 50,000-seat stadium, which was named after the country’s former president Abdoulaye Wade.
The choice of the name of the former head of state is a “tribute to his multidimensional, intellectual, pan-Africanist, politician and former president of Senegal career,” current Senegalese President Macky Sall said on Tuesday during the inauguration ceremony. ‘inauguration. “This beautiful infrastructure dedicated to young people is an invitation to continue our path towards excellence.”
“It’s a source of pride to have such a beautiful stadium in Senegal. The country needed that to restore the image of its football,” Bamba Dieng, 24, one of the spectators told AFP. namesake of the young Teranga Lions star.
“I have never seen such a beautiful stadium. I hope it will be well maintained so that it lasts a very long time,” said 29-year-old Ibou Ngom.
The enclosure is the only one approved by international bodies, the African Football Confederation (CAF) having withdrawn its approval at the Lat Dior stadium, in the Thiès region (70 km from Dakar), in May 2021.
“For what football represents in Senegal, for all that Senegal has great players, we needed a stadium the size of this team”, analyzes El Hadj Thierno Dramé, sports journalist.
This new stadium was built in a year and a half by a Turkish company at a cost of 156 billion FCFA (238 million euros). It is the second largest sports building in the country after the Léopold Sédar Senghor stadium (60,000 seats) built in 1985 in Dakar.
The new construction is part of a dynamic to make Dakar “a sports hub” in order to prevent matches from being relocated to Asia, says Mbaye Jacques Diop, communication adviser to the Ministry of Sports. The country is in a phase of rehabilitation of its stadiums, with the Youth Olympic Games in sight, which the country is hosting in 2026.
The Abdoulaye Wade Stadium, initially called Stade du Senegal, was officially inaugurated on Tuesday by President Macky Sall, in the presence of several heads of state including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Rwandan President Paul Kagame or the President of Liberia and former international footballer George Weah. Fifa President Gianni Infantino was also among many other personalities.
A gala match was to pit Senegalese football legends such as Aliou Cissé, current coach of the national team, against African football legends like Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o and Ivorian Didier Drogba.
The stadium will host its first big game on March 29. Senegal, which beat Egypt in the CAN final, will host the Pharaohs in the return match for the 2022 World Cup play-offs.
With AFP
