Forced to cede Dakar Arena to basketball, the Senegalese Judo Federation will finally organize its 2024 Dakar Open at the Diamniadio Exhibition Center, following mediation from the Ministry of Sports. However, the federal body expects financial support from the supervisory authority for additional costs. By Woury DIALLO –
The Senegalese Judo Federation has finally agreed to relocate the international tournament called Open Dakar 2024 to the Diamniadio Exhibition Center (from November 21 to 24). And this, at the end of the meeting on Monday, between the Ministry of Sports and the feds. It is also in these facilities that the Senegalese Boxing Federation organized, in March 2023, the Zone 2 Championship.
As a result, the orange ball recovers its floor and will be able to organize in the best conditions the next Men’s Afrobasket 2025 playoff window, from November 22 to 24 at Dakar Arena. Housed in Group B, the Lions will be in the company of Cameroon, Gabon and Rwanda.
Good news for the federal body, but especially for the State which thus avoids a mess that Senegalese sport does not need.
Reunion with guardianship today
However, if the orange ball can continue quietly to refine the preparations for its competition, on the judo side the file is far from being emptied. Indeed, Le Quotidien learned that if the Senegalese Judo Federation has given its agreement in principle to relocate its events to the Exhibition Center, “it is because basketball has no possibility of organizing elsewhere than at Dakar Arena. And this, despite the fact that the Judo Federation signed a contract of 13 million CFA with Sogip to organize its competition at Dakar Arena. However, the source adds, “organizing at the Exhibition Center involves additional costs. And the ministry is in the process of reviewing the arrangements for covering these costs.”
Moreover, according to our interlocutor, “the ministry, Sogip, the Federation and the service providers must meet tomorrow (today) to express development needs and the terms of their support”.
For the Dakar Open, more than 200 participants are expected. A meeting which will also be used to organize a seminar and an exam for more than thirty referees.
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