Burkina Faso is preparing for one of its most important matches in recent history as the Stallions face South Africa in the fifth and penultimate round of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. The anticipation surrounding the game is immense, both among the players and the fans.
The Burkinabe public is fully aware of the stakes, and the team’s determination has been evident in training. “As you know, this match is very important for everyone,” said Koné. “It’s the penultimate game that will allow us to play the final of the qualification in Ouagadougou. It’s just as crucial as the last one.
Koné’s words reflect the team’s growing belief that qualification remains possible, but also the awareness that South Africa will present a formidable challenge. The two sides already met earlier in the campaign, playing out a hard-fought 1-1 draw in Ouagadougou during the second matchday.
“We know this team well. They were the team we feared the most in this group,” the Alanyaspor defender added. “We started poorly against them at home when we drew. It was a very good point for them.
In preparation for the decisive fixture, the Burkinabe technical staff has put in extensive work analyzing their opponents. Head coach Paulo Duarte and his assistants have focused on identifying South Africa’s weaknesses and adjusting tactics accordingly.
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“With the coach, we analyzed this team carefully,” said Koné, affectionately known as “Bako.” “I think that Burkina Faso has more potential and more strength to beat this team.
As things stand, Burkina Faso sits at the top of the group with six points, narrowly ahead of Senegal and South Africa, who remain close behind. The standings are extremely tight, and any slip-up could drastically alter the race for qualification.
For the Burkinabe squad, the encounter is more than just a football match - it represents a chance to make history. Football is the most popular sport in Burkina Faso. Approximately 35% of the people in Burkina Faso are considered association football fans.
The national association can look back on recent developments with a great deal of pride. Reaching the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations on home soil in 1998, reaching the knockout stage for their first FIFA World Youth Championship in 2003, and appearances at two final competitions of the CAF U-17 Cup, as well as third place at the FIFA U-17 World Championship in Trinidad and Tobago in 2001 are the country's outstanding achievements at international level.
The nations most famous players include Kassoum Ouegraogo, nicknamed Zico, who had his most successful seasons with Espérance de Tunis before ending his career in Germany, Siaka Ouattara, who spent his entire career with Mulhouse in France, and Moumouni Dagano, who was voted best African player in Belgium in 2001, when he played for the Belgian side Genk.
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Burkina Faso received an unexpected free pass into the group stage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification process, when their opening round contestant, the Central African Republic, withdrew from the competition. This gave the West Africans, who were at that stage ranked 14th on the continent, the certainty that their name would be in the hat when the Preliminary Draw for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany was made.
They got off to a flying start, beating Ghana 1-0 in their opening match and laying down a marker for their Group 2 adversaries South Africa, Cape Verde Islands, Congo DR and Uganda. The victory train began to come off the rails with two defeats to Cape Verde, and with a record of two wins and three losses, Burkina Faso were up against it at the half-way stage.
Although football was already practiced at the turn of the century in the British colony of Gold Coast (now Ghana), this sport did not appear until the mid-1930s in the area of today's Burkina Faso.
In 1932, the French colony of Upper Volta was divided among the neighboring colonies, so that the two main cities Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso then belonged to the colony of Ivory Coast. Bobo-Dioulasso, as a central commercial city meeting point of cultures and new ideas, was the starting point for the development of football in the country; the teams consisted mainly of French military personnel, missionaries, colonial officials and merchants, workers and employees from the neighboring colonies Gold Coast, Guinea, Senegal or French Sudan (now Mali).
1935 was the first team Togo-Daho, which was later merged into Racing Club Bobo-Dioulasso, founded by the director of the French trading company Compagnie Française de la Côte d'Ivoire (CFCI), on special occasions until the war mobilization in 1939 against the team the French military base. A team of the Catholic Mission founded by Father Germain Nadal became Jeanne d'Arc Bobo-Dioulasso in 1946.
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Only after the Second World War and the restoration of Upper Volta as a colony in 1947 clubs were founded in the capital, which had their origins in various cultural, ethnic, religious groups or other organizations of society. For example, newcomers from Dahome, now Benin, the club Modèle Sport (later AS Ouagadougou) and the Christian cleric Ambroise Ouédraogo founded the team Charles Lwanga, the predecessor of ASFA Yennenga Ouagadougou.
This rapid development of football required the creation of organizational structures; The Frenchman Lucien Sangan founded a football district within the sporting administration of French West Africa. For the first time, official games took place on a sports field surrounded by seccos (a kind of straw walls) on the site of today's cinema Ciné Sanyon.
From 1950, football in Upper Volta changed from the elitist enjoyment of a few city dwellers to a popular sport practiced throughout the country. In many cities of the territory new associations were founded and in 1950 the football district based in Bobo-Dioulasso decided to join the Association of French West Africa, the Ligue d'AOF de Football, that of the Fédération Française de Football (FFF), the Federation of the Motherland France belonged.
There were numerous clubs throughout the country. The infrastructure developed slowly, however, but it came to the opening of the municipal stadiums in Bobo-Dioulasso (1952) and Ouagadougou (1953 or 1958 depending on the source).
While games were held mainly locally at the local level in the 1940s, there were more frequent inter-colonial encounters during the 1950s as part of friendlies or competitions organized by major West African trading companies. In addition, Upper Voltaic clubs participated in 1952 at the Coupe d'AOF, the Cup competition French West Africa, where they were, however, mostly inferior. It was not until 1958 that ASF Bobo-Dioulasso celebrated some success in this tournament. Among the big players of ASF at that time was Seydou Bamba.
According to the statutes adopted in 2002, the FBF is subordinate to the Ministry of Sport and Leisure (Ministère des Sports et des Loisirs). The supreme body is the General Assembly (Assemblée Générale), which meets once a year and is composed of representatives of the leagues and associations, honorary members and the members of the Executive Bureau (Bureau Exécutif).
Maxime Ouédraogo was the first president of the FVF after independence until his detention in 1963 in connection with his work as Minister of Labor. Under its successor, Adrien Tapsoba, the association adopted new statutes and became a member of FIFA and CAF, but after conflicts over the creation of new regional leagues, the federation was disbanded politically in 1965 and an interim leadership under Naon Charles Somé was instituted until the overthrow of the President Maurice Yaméogo was in office a year later.
Adrien Tapsoba rejoined the association for a further 14 years before being replaced by Saye Zerbo's coup d'état, led by Michel Ilboudo, after a coup d'état by the National Football Team (CNCF). Another coup d'état in 1983, which brought Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo to power, put a quick end to the committee.
This turbulent phase in the history of the country culminated in 1983 in the revolution of Thomas Sankara, whose vision of a new society did not want to exclude football and its structures. But a planned tribunal populaire de la révolution, before which the former leaders of the association should answer, never took place.
Under Sankara, the name of the country was changed in Burkina Faso, union presidents at the time of the revolution were Nurukyor Claude Somda and Pierre Guigma. Under the leadership of Félix Tiemtarboum, Souley Mohamed, and Boureima Badini, who voluntarily resigned in 1997, Blaise Compaoré, who put himself in power in 1987, became a unique association in the history of the association, now called Fédération Burkinabè de Football.
Reason was the poor performance during qualifying for the 1998 World Cup. Also, his successor Honoré Traoré declared his resignation in 2002, as well Seydou Diakité in July 2007, who wanted to allow the association a fresh start, after the national selection in qualifying for Africa Cup 2008 had disappointed. After a transitional phase led by Didier Ouédraogo Zambendé Théodore Sawadogo was elected on January 12, 2008 with 84 to 60 votes against Lt. Col.
Since March 10, 2012, Colonel Sita Sangaré is the successor of Sawadogo. The first international match of the Upper Voltaic selection was played on April 13, 1960 in the Jeux de la Communauté in Madagascar and ended with a 5-4 victory against Gabon. In the squad were 15 players from six different clubs. In the following years the team took part in tournaments of the Jeux de l'Amitié in Abidjan (1961) and Dakar (1963).
Upper Volta failed to qualify for the 1965 All-Africa Games and in 1968 took part for the first time in the qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations, but lost to Algeria and Mali. In the 1970s, the rise of private entrepreneurship in the country led to an increased involvement in football, and the policy was set with the establishment of a Sports Department in 1971.
When participating in the 1973 Pan African Games in Lagos (Nigeria) Obervolta lost under coach Bernard Bayala all three games, but was considered by observers as one of the great revelations of the tournament. Only with the revolution of the Thomas Sankara 1983 began a massive promotion of the football sport, which serve the public health and which should help the country abroad to reputation.
A new National Stadium (Stade du 4-Août) for the country now called Burkina Faso was opened in 1984. After Sankara's fall, the national team - trained in the meantime by the German Heinz-Peter Überjahn - the fruits of this continued even under the current since 1987 President Blaise Compaoré promotion yet.
Only in 1996 was the qualification for the African Championship for the first time on their own. National coach was Idrissa Traoré (called saboteur) in 1993, which rejuvenated the team in a row and professionalized the environment. The poor performance at the tournament in South Africa led to the dismissal of Traoré.
Under the Bulgarian Ivan Wutow and the Ghanaian Malik Jabir disappointed the team during qualifying for the 1998 World Cup, which was also in preparation for the African Cup in 1998 in their own country. The tournament was the biggest success of the team, as only in the semifinals the end against the eventual winner Egypt came. Supported by the frenetic audience, the team was able to outgrow it.
Only a few times did the team compete against non-African opponents; against Qatar and South Korea, three times against Bahrain and twice against Oman. Some friendly matches against other African teams took place on European soil.
After already missed the qualification for the African Cup 2006, the team also failed in qualifying for the 2008 tournament in Ghana. The re-contracted coach Idrissa Traoré was dismissed in April 2007, as in addition to the poor sporting results should have problems between him, the team and the association leadership, as the association announced at a press conference on June 19, 2007.
The association management decided to appoint the Frenchman Didier Notheaux for the second time after 1998 as national coach. Nevertheless, the remaining games in the qualification could not be won. After Notheaux was dismissed in October 2007, the association presented in March the Portuguese Paulo Duarte as successor.
After eight wins in eleven games qualifying for the 2010 Africa Cup and the 2010 World Cup, Burkina Faso was a participant in the 2010 tournament in Angola, where, as in 2012 in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, the end was after the preliminary round. As a result, Duarte was dismissed by the association.
His successor was the Belgian Paul Put, who succeeded in the 2013 AM in South Africa, the finals. After the weak performance at the 2015 tournament he was dismissed and replaced by the German Gernot Rohr.
The following players were in the squad for the 2017 FIFA World Cup against Botswana on 5 September 2015: Germain Sanou, Abdoulaye Soulama, Mohamed Koffi, Bakary Koné, Steeve Yago, Paul Koulibaly, Narcisse Bambara, Jonathan Zongo, Préjuce Nakoulma and Charles Kaboré.
The Étalons locaux have been created as part of the 2009 African Nations Championship, a tournament for national teams that only consist of players active in the respective national leagues. In contrast to the national team, whose games are well attended and are pursued with passion, the national club competitions suffer from loss of importance and lack of interest of the Burkinabe public, who have their reasons mainly in the poorly assessed quality of the club teams.
20 or 30 years ago, the great duels - such as the arch rivals Étoile Filante Ouagadougou and ASFA - Yennenga Ouagadougou - events that occupied the whole country for weeks, they are hardly noticed today and Burkinabe teams succeed no successes in the African Cup more. Since the Ouagadougous clubs have their roots in individual districts, the Hauptstadtderbys are still perceived today as Stadtteilduelle.
First Obervoltaischer champion 1961 ASF Bobo-Dioulasso, who could repeat this success in the following two years. As a result, teams from Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso made the championship among themselves. In 1974, by order of the Minister Félix Tiemtarboum, a championship was created on the basis of regional elections, which were to take the place of club teams for the national title.
The aim was to join forces to become more successful in continental club competitions. This decision led to polemics and shared public opinion. With seven titles in a row, the Silures Bobo Dioulasso were more successful than the rival selection Kadiogo Club Ouagadougou. In some successes, this system also led to frustration among the leaders of each club and had no future.
In 1981 and 1982, there were no games due to political turbulence. The dominant clubs of the following years were first Étoile Filante Ouagadougou and later ASFA Yennenga Ouagadougou. Master of the Year 2007 was CF Ouagadougou. Les Communaux won in the second Erstligajahr the first championship title. In 2008, after seven years again Étoile Filante could obtain the title, but had to hand it in 2009 to ASFA-Yennenga, who succeeded in 2010, 2011 and 2012, the title defense.
The game operation is deficient and is subsidized by the Ministry of Sport, the cost of travel to games are taken, for example. Since Burkina Faso's sponsorship of tobacco companies was banned, the financial situation has worsened. The Manufacture burkinabè de cigarettes (MABUCIG) with the cigarette brand Excellence paid the association as a sponsor from 1999 annually 200 million CFA francs (about 300,000 euros).
While the players of Étoile Filante earn between 75,000 and 250,000 CFA francs (approximately between 115 and 380 euros), others get only 30,000 CFA francs (about 46 euros) and still others are pure amateurs. Since the clubs have no sponsors, the club officials pay the costs incurred from their own pocket.
On April 25, 2010, the game operation was interrupted after a few days before the association had reported its insolvency and debts, which were estimated by local media with about 610,000 euros. Racing Club Bobo-Dioulasso's Cup quarter-final match against RC Kadiogo Ouagadougou on July 18, 2007, revealed the age-related issues of Burkinabe players. Since a player from RCK had given his age wrong, the athletic loser RCB won the game at the Green Table.
Violent incidents occurred at the end of the 2006/07 season, when US Yatenga Ouahigouya's play against US Ouagadougou supporters of the home team provoked a disruption of the game by throwing objects. Security forces used tear gas to deal with the situation. Several people were injured, one of them seriously.
Santos FC Ouagadougou's fans attacked the referee on the final day of ... The Burkina Faso national football team (French: Équipe de football du Burkina Faso) represents Burkina Faso in men's international football and is controlled by the Burkinabé Football Federation.
They were known as the Upper Volta national football team until 1984, when Upper Volta became Burkina Faso. They finished fourth in the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations, when they hosted the tournament. The country made their first appearance in the Africa Cup of Nations in 1978, but it was not until 1996 that they returned to the biennial tournament.
Burkina Faso played in Group B of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations alongside Ghana and Ivory Coast in a three-team group due to Togo's withdrawal. Burkina Faso first entered the World Cup in the 1978 qualifying tournament, beating Mauritania in the preliminary round before losing 1-3 against Ivory Coast.
They next entered World Cup qualifying in 1990, losing in the first round to Libya 2-3. Burkina Faso withdrew from the 1994 competition but returned in 1998, beating Mauritania again to make it to the final qualifying group stage, however they failed to obtain a single point, finishing bottom of their group.
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