Three players who were banned for organising a protest against their treatment while on international duty with Mali’s women’s team say they have not been paid since 2018 and that the Malian football federation (Femafoot) “doesn’t care” about women’s football in the country.
Mali’s captain, Fatoumata Karentao, Coulouba Sogoré and Aïssata Traoré were suspended by Femafoot after organising the protest following their victory against Burkina Faso in the first leg of the 2024 Olympics qualifier in July, which took place in Benin. They had returned to Mali and had expected to go straight into a new training camp before the second leg but instead were told to go back to their homes without being given any travelling expenses, aside from 1,000 West African francs (£1.31) that was provided by a Femafoot employee who “took pity on them”.
Karentao, Sogoré and Traoré say they were later informed they would not be playing in the second leg of the qualifier by Famaga Dembele, the president of women’s football at Femafoot.
“I was talking with the president and he told me to publish on my social media that everything is all right because he was seeing my posts,” Karentao told the Guardian. “I said that I can’t until we receive our money. When we were in Benin, when we really started the fight, he informed me I would be fired from the team as soon as we went back to Mali.”
Traoré said: “It’s a shame. I couldn’t believe it. We received a call from the coach to inform us about our suspension. We didn’t receive any official letter, nothing.”
Mali drew the return leg 2-2 and are due to face Zambia next month in the next round of Olympic qualifying. It is understood the three banned players were told this week that their suspensions had been lifted via a text message from a team official which ordered them to report for training the next morning.
The experienced former Auxerre defender Sogoré has also claimed that most of the squad have not been paid since finishing fourth at the African Cup of Nations in 2018. “It’s been five years,” she said. “I don’t even really know how much money they owe us. They absolutely don’t care about women’s football. We’re just asking for our rights, nothing more.”
Traoré, a forward who plays for French side Guingamp, said: “We’re fighting for our rights. We’re just asking for the money they owed us. Fifa gives money to Femafoot every year for the development of women’s football. I’m asking where this money is? We’re hoping for a change, one day, but how? Look at what happened. We protested and now we’re suspended.”
Femafoot did not respond to questions from the Guardian. Femafoot’s president, Mamatou Touré, who is also a member of the influential Fifa council, is in prison in Bamako as he awaits trial after being indicted on 9 August by the Malian government for “attacking public property as well as forgery and use of forgery and complicity”.
The 66-year-old has denied the allegations and was successfully re-elected last week by 61 votes to one after an extraordinary general assembly, having been the only candidate whose filing was accepted by the electoral commission.
