Editor Note: This article is translated from the original written in French by Pan-Africa Football's Hilary Christelle Tolo Kpadonou
The Union of West African Federations of Zone B (WAFU-B) closes the year with its last competition: the U17 women’s tournament. Five nations, Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Benin and Ivory Coast, have been competing since December 12, 2024 in the absence of Togo and Burkina Faso. This tournament crowns a rich year for WAFU-B which organized no less than five major competitions including the qualifying tournaments for the U17 and U20 Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, the Women's Champions League and the School Championship.
In this exclusive interview, Executive Director Philippe Tchere looks back on the highlights of 2024, the significant innovations and the organization's major ambitions for the year to come. He was interviewed by Hilary Christelle Tolo Kpadonou.
UFOA B is holding its fifth competition in 2024. Personally, what is your assessment of the year?
Philippe Tchere: Thank you very much, I can say that the results are positive as you see. Five competitions, we met all the criteria so that means that we did all the competitions that were already planned so it's really positive, a positive result.
Anything else new this year?
For a long time, the UFOA was housed in the premises of the FIF, the Ivorian Football Federation. And since then, I can say, a few weeks ago, we moved into our own premises. And we have our own headquarters now in Abidjan.
The U17 girls' tournament is not a qualifying tournament for any CAF competitions so why organize it?
I can say that it is a preparatory tournament for next year's competitions. And also regarding this tournament I think it should be mentioned that it is a women's tournament which for the first time was organized by women. So you see, the officials who managed this tournament were 100% female, the referees who managed this tournament were 100% female and even what we call the “ball boys”, I call them here the “ball girls” because it's also girls who were there. They were on the field for this tournament.
What is your assessment of the girls' level of play?
It is excellent. African women's football, I can say that it is on another level. It's really excellent. Every time I watch a match I am personally dazzled by the talent of the girls. I think that if we continue on this line, we will really have an African champion at the Women's World Cup.
For the coming year, are there things we need to know?
We have a lot of activities, that's clear, a lot of innovations. All I can tell you is to keep an eye on our activities and you will be surprised. Keep an eye on us and you will really see the innovations we are going to implement. But there are really a lot of great positive things happening, rest assured.
Will we perhaps have an idea of how many competitions we could probably have next year?
At least five competitions. And since you are a journalist this may interest you, we will also have seminars on communication and marketing for members of our different federations. It is also an innovation. I don't think we've really had a seminar like this in the past.
In Niger, the school championship was contested in a technical center and this time at the U-17 Girls Cup we are also in a technical center. Tell us why and will soon the lower category competitions now be contested at the technical centers?
You know, technical centers really play a crucial role in the development of football. You look at the framework in which we are today and I think it is the ideal framework for this type of competition, not a big competition but development competitions. It’s in a sporting setting. So, we must also promote development activities there and that is really very important.
So in a big development, the youth competitions will be played in the technical centers?
We will launch the activities. Each country will try to take the competition it wants to organize. And depending on the infrastructure that is there, we will choose the location where the competition will be held.
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