Senegal: Graduation ceremony at the end of the 7th edition of the FIFA/CIES Programme

Thirty-three students who successfully completed the FIFA/CIES Sport Management Programme at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) received their diplomas during an awards ceremony organised in Dakar on Saturday 28 September, in the presence of His Excellency Abdoulaye Matar Diop, “Grand Serigne” of Dakar, former Minister of Sports and member of the FIFA Ethics Committee, Ibrahima Gueye, Secretary General of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Djibril Seck, Director of INSEPS, and Mamadou Koume, President of the Sports Press Association (ANPS), representing class patron Pape Diouf.

The diplomas were awarded after a year of studies which allowed the 7th generation of Senegalese sports managers to become familiar with fields as varied and indispensable as law, communication, finance, marketing, sponsorship, management and event management.

Djibril Seck, the newly appointed head of INSEPS (National Higher Institute for Popular Education and Sport), an institute which is connected with UCAD and entrusted with teaching the FIFA/CIES Programme in Senegal, told the new graduates: “… You have benefited from training that has allowed you to increase your knowledge and skills, so as to be better prepared for your work in the field of sport”.

Ibrahima Faye, the most senior graduate of the 7th edition, spoke on behalf of the class. He also conveyed a message to his classmates: “… You should consider yourselves as stakeholders on whom your country is counting to take national sport to African summits first and then to world heights (…) Sport needs to become more professional, but professionalization does not mean profiteering, it means modernization”.

Many well-known figures were in the audience, including Guédel Ndiaye, President of the Senegalese Rugby Federation, Abdoulaye Dabo, Special Advisor to the Director of Senegalese Radio and Television (RTS), Pape Mady Diop, Editor-in-Chief at RTS, Cheikh Diaw, Youth Inspector representing the Minister of Youth, Mody Ka, President of the National Youth Council of Senegal (CNJS), Boubacar Gaye, President of the Senegalese Association of Sports Managers (ASMAS), Oumar Samb, President of ASC SUNEOR (Premier League football club), Lamine Diop, President of Linguère de Saint-Louis (Premier League football club), Abdoulaye Toure, President of ASC Yeggo (Premier League football club) and Captain Mansour Mbaye, Director of the Iba Mar Diop sports complex.

The ceremony ended with an appropriate finishing touch, with a symbolic transition from the “graduating” class to the “new” class. Thirty-five new students (from Senegal, but also the Central African Republic, the Comoros, Mauritania, Guinea, Morocco, Cameroon and Gabon) will shortly begin the 2013-2014 edition of the FIFA/CIES Programme in Senegal. 

UCAD and CIES express their warmest congratulations and wish every success to the new graduates: : Léra Geraud Cécil Kévin, Alhassana, Matar, Papa Bouna, Youssouph, Aïssatou Françoise, Pierre Michel Samba, Coumba, Gilbert, Gérald David, Djibril, Modou, Waly, Paul, Birama, Ibrahima Niang, Aly, Tidiane El Hadji, Mamadou, Ibrahima, Maréme, Jean Marie, Sosthène, Abdoulaye, Seydina Issa Laye, Aïssatou, Serigne Mbaye, Sadio, Ababacar, Amadou Tidiane, Mohamed, Baye Bilal and Pape Ibrahima.