Senegal opens a world-class stadium after "African football glory"
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Senegal, recently crowned Africa Cup of Nations champions, inaugurated an international stadium yesterday in Diamniadio, 30 kilometers from the capital, Dakar.
Thousands of Senegalese traveled by bus or train to attend the opening of the stadium, which can accommodate fifty thousand spectators and bears the name of the country's late President Abdoulaye Wade.
Current president Macky Sall announced during the stadium's opening ceremony that the name Wade was chosen "in honor of his multi-dimensional, intellectual, African and political career."
"This beautiful architectural edifice dedicated to young people is an invitation to continue our path towards excellence," Sall added.
The stadium is the only one in Senegal that meets international standards, noting that the Confederation of African Football ("CAF") had withdrawn the license of the Lat Dior stadium in the Tias region, 70 km from Dakar, in May 2021. Bamba Dieng, a 24-year-old spectator, said "We are proud to have a similarly beautiful stadium in Senegal. The country needed this to restore the image of football," he told AFP.
"I have never seen such a beautiful stadium. I hope to preserve it so that it has a long life," said Ibo Ngom, 29.
The stadium was built within a year and a half by a Turkish company at a cost of $270 million.
This is the second largest sports edifice in the country after the Leopold Sedar Senghor stadium, which has a capacity of sixty thousand spectators and was built in 1985 in Dakar.
Communications advisor at the Ministry of Sports M'Baye Jacques Diop said that the new stadium is part of a dynamic of making Dakar a "sports center" to avoid transferring Senegal's matches to Asia.
According to Sall, the stadium contains a 2-megawatt solar power plant that makes it "almost self-sufficient in electricity."
The stadium was inaugurated on Tuesday in the presence of several heads of state, including Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Rwanda's Paul Kagame and Liberian president, former football star George Weah.
Swiss-Italian FIFA President Gianni Infantino was among the attendees.
And the first entitlement to the stadium will be on March 29, when Senegal plays with Egypt in the second leg of the African play-off qualifier for the 2022 World Cup, in a repeat of their confrontation in the last African Nations final, which was decided by the “Teranga Lions” who won the first continental title in their history.
Senegal is rehabilitating its stadiums, knowing that it will host the Youth Olympic Games in 2026.
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