CAF suspends Senegal's Leopold Sedar Senghor stadium for one year

12 MONTH MATCH BAN FOR LEOPOLD SEDAR SENGHOR STADIUM: Riot police try to tame the crowd at the Senegal/Ivory Coast CAN Qualifier on October 13,2012. (Photo by Getty Images)  

By Rougui Alassane Niane, AIPS Young Reporter, Senegal

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DAKAR, November 30, 2012 - The Leopold Sedar Senghor stadium will be deprived of competition for a year following a decision of the Disciplinary Panel of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) which  heard the delegates of the Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) last Monday.

In addition to this 12-month competition ban, the FSF must pay a fine of 25 million CFA francs, or USD  50,000.

The action was taken as a consequence of the  October 13 incident when Senegalese supporters unhappy with the decision of the referee who had whistled a penalty against the Lions, lit fires in the Senghor stands and threw projectiles. The referee was forced to abandon the match between Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire in the 74th minute as the Elephants were leading 2-0.

The disciplinary panel referred to Articles 82, 83 and 151 and based its sanction following the incidents that marred the encounter between Senegal and the Ivory Coast in the second leg of the last round of qualifying for the CAN 2013.

This penalty may be doubled if two years after the suspension, similar acts are committed.

At first, CAF decided to exclude Senegal from competition and confirm the results obtained in the field.

‘’The decision of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to suspend the Leopold Sedar Senghor stadium game for a year is not grossly disproportionate," said the president of the Senegalese Football Federation, reacting to the sanction.

"Given the seriousness of the facts, this is the first time that a meeting cannot run in Senegal. One might have feared the worst ; it's not outrageously disproportionate," responded Mr. Augustin Senghor to the sanction imposed by the disciplinary panel of the CAF on Thursday.

"However, the Executive Committee, the governing body of football in the FSF, will work together with the authorities to see IF the way forward is the possibility of referral to the Jury of Appeal to alleviate the sanctions," he said, arguing that "no one can deny the seriousness of the facts."

"But in view of the efforts made by the Federation and the authorities, as well as the testimonies made in this direction, we think they will hear us and reduce the penalty of 25 million francs," he said.

Augustin Senghor lamented the shortfall with this suspension which may require the national team of Senegal to go abroad for preparation of  the playoff games of the World Cup 2014.