Guinea's Ligue 1 was set to begin its 2024-25 season this upcoming weekend but it appears that a delay to the proceedings is highly likely after a coalition of twelve top division clubs announced their intention to not participate.
Reigning champions Milo FC and Guinean giants Horoya AC are among the clubs, numbering twelve out of fourteen participants in Ligue 1. The coalition of clubs declared that they will not participate due to a lack of fulfilled promises from the league to pay subsidies amounting to 80 million Guinean Francs ($9,270) for clubs who retained their top division status last season and 40 million francs ($4,635) for clubs who were promoted to Ligue 1 for the upcoming campaign.
After the twelve clubs (Milo, Horoya, CI Kamsar, Foot Elite, Ashanti GB, Academie SOAR, Flamme Olympique, Wakriya AC, ASM Sangaredi, Loubha FC, RCCK, Renaissance FC) convened for a meeting, a statement was posted on the social media of Horoya AC explaining the decision (translated from the original in French):
While praising the League's efforts to start the championship, the representatives of these 12 clubs have lamented the premature publication of the schedule of the first two days while the backpay of the subsidy for the 2023–2020 season is 80,000,000 GNF per Ligue 1 club and GNF 40,000,000 per club promoted this year have not been paid by the League, despite the firm promise of payment made to the clubs during the 04th December 2024 meeting with the clubs.
In addition, with regard to the new 2024-2025 sporting season, no deadline has been proposed to clubs for payment of the grant. In doing so, in order to guarantee a better sporting season 2024-2025, the representatives of the clubs present decided:
Not to play the championship without the full payment of the arrears of the sports season 2023-2025 and a concrete proposal for the payment of the subsidy for the new season 2024-2025.
The 2024-25 season has already been delayed after a couple of false starts and a sudden announcement by Ligue 1 of the fixture list for the opening matchday sparked action from the protesting clubs, who cited a promise of payment from the league made last week during a meeting between the clubs and the league.
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