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Casimir Sawadogo has been President of the Burkinabe Volleyball Federation for 12 years and is also Director General of the National Customs School. The main objectives of Casimir Sawadogo and his Executive Committee are to restore the former glory of Burkinabe volleyball and promote the development of Burkinabe volleyball teams on the international stage through youth policies. It is worth noting that under his mandate, two Burkinabe teams (male and female) participated in the African Cup of Nations for the first time. Casimir Sawadogo, Vice President of the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB), who was just re-elected, gave an interview to the Lefaso.net newspaper, in which he took stock of his management. He also focused on the prospects for the promotion of Burkinabe volleyball and its role in the African volleyball governing body. Interview!
Lefaso.net: Could you please introduce yourself to our internet users?
Casimir Sawadogo: My name is Casimir Sawadogo, President of the Burkina Faso Volleyball Federation.
How long have you been president of the Burkina Faso Volleyball Federation?
I am about to finish my third term as President of the Burkina Faso Volleyball Federation. Each term is four years. This means that I have dominated the destiny of Burkina Faso volleyball for 12 years.
What assessment can you make both domestically and internationally for the third mandate (2020-2024) which is coming to an end?
It has been four years since the start of the third semester. We were elected based on a four-year project that we try to carry out every year. Last year, we can divide our activities into several categories. We can first see the activities at the national level, where we held the group championship in Bobo and Ouagadougou regions. We participated in the regional rounds of the D1 Championship (Class A) in Bobo and Ouagadougou. This allowed us to enter the final stage of the D1 Championship, which was held last month. In our project, we won the D2 Championship, but we could not achieve it due to lack of financial resources. This is the activity that we can cite at the national level.
At the regional level, Burkina Faso is part of Zone 3, which brings together eight West African countries. Last April, we welcomed the champions of Zone 3 in Côte d’Ivoire, with AS Douanes also participating. We are currently preparing for the U17 National Cup, which will be held in Benin in early September. We have to leave with our Under-17s.
The third category is continental events. We made it to the African Games qualifiers and qualified for beach volleyball and indoor volleyball. We also represented the women’s beach volleyball team and the men’s national stud team at the African Games in Ghana. They participated and we were happy with their ranking given the lack of resources for preparation.
We also did not participate in the CAVB National Cup due to lack of financial resources. We even started training the men’s national team, but along the way we were unable to proceed due to lack of financial means. In hand sports, funds are lacking, and all travel, when it is far from Burkina Faso, is done by plane, with expensive transportation, certification fees, which is usually not easy for us.
There are also meetings that we can classify as activities. The federation meets regularly, almost every two weeks there is an office meeting. This year we also had a comprehensive inspection of our services by the Ministry of Sports, who came to see how the federation operates at its premises and to identify certain deficiencies and achievements at our federation level.
We also attended the Zone III Conference in Abidjan in April. We have just attended the CAVB Elective Congress in Morocco on August 17-18, 2024, where we still have to elect Vice-Presidents and Zone Presidents. On this occasion, we were elected as Vice-Presidents of the CAVB for the next four years. Regarding meetings, the FIVB’s Elective Congress will be held in Portugal in November.
We also have to carry out training activities. A Level 3 coaching course will be held in Benin from September 26 to October 5. We have six coaches who will participate in the Level 3 competition. An online course for beach volleyball coaches and referees was held in May 2024. We have 10 coaches and 5 referees participating.
The Federation must provide support to various volleyball promoters through arbitration and resource persons. Among these are the USSU-BF, the Effort Competition, the Minister’s Cup and certain promoters of the provincial festivals. Below is a summary of the activities we were able to carry out this year.
Overall, are you satisfied with this review?
Our management committee brings together all volleyball players from all provinces and during the meetings we tried to estimate a percentage and we think that the success rate of our activities is about 85%.
In short, what are the problems facing volleyball in Burkina Faso?
It is important to remember that the real problem of volleyball in Burkina Faso is the lack of financial resources. It is true that the Ministry strives every year to get subsidies, but it is not enough to carry out our activities. We are still forced to rely on goodwill to carry out our activities. You also know the security situation in our country. Today, everyone is asked to support the country financially. Therefore, many people who come to help are no longer able to support us financially. This is why we cannot carry out all our activities. It is the main problem in terms of infrastructure, we have the Ouaga 2000 stadium, the CNOSB stadium, we have a federation platform within the ISSDH. So, we can say that we are able to carry out activities and most clubs have a field. Equipment, balls, nets, it can also be said that it is okay. The first thing that is lacking is financial resources.
Burkina Faso Volleyball Federation President Casimir Sawadogo was re-elected as Vice President of the African Volleyball Federation
Given all these difficulties, what policies should be adopted to promote the development of volleyball in Burkina Faso, especially on the international stage?
The first solution is to have a sponsor who can help us with a minimum amount every year. This will help us get the resources that the ministry has to offer so that we can carry out our activities. We talk about the next generation every time. We need to be able to keep up with the next generation and carry out activities. It is true that the ministry has a project for the next generation, which is going well, but we also work with the federation to set up a volleyball school. If we have the financial resources to follow all these people, we can say that in four years we will have a good national team. And if the next generation of young people can play in the U17, U19, U21 competitions, I believe that in four years, five years, six years, we can have two good men’s and women’s national teams that can shine internationally.
Could you please comment on your re-election as Vice President of the Confederation of African Volleyball?
It must be acknowledged that four years ago, Mr. Amr Elwani, the president of the CAVB, was replaced by Ms. Bouchra Hajij from Morocco, who accepted me. Four years ago, I presented my candidacy and the African Confederation elected me as Vice President of the Confederation of Volleyball in Africa. We must bring this mandate back to life because four years later, we have the honor of being re-elected as Vice President together with comrades from other countries. We are now forming the executive office of the Confederation of Volleyball in Africa, the governing body of volleyball in Africa. We are part of it and I think Burkina Faso is growing.
How can the vice presidency be a victory for Burkina Faso?
When you have a son involved in the executive office, it means decisions are made and if there is something that is good for his country, he can fully support it. In the past four years, at the end of the third year, the treasurer of the Kenya Football Association President died and the President appointed me as the treasurer of the African Volleyball Confederation. With this re-election, I hope that she will trust me again and give me the responsibility of treasurer because the vice president and treasurer is the third person in the African Volleyball Confederation. We will have an election first, and then a meeting, and she will select the first vice president and treasurer of the executive office. I hope that I will be accepted.
What is your last word?
I would like to end by calling on all volleyball players to unite and contribute to the impact of volleyball in Burkina Faso. It is the unity of effort, sharing of ideas and actions that can restore volleyball to its former glory and make it more well-known. Indeed, it was with our mandate that two teams participated for the first time in the African Volleyball Nations Cup. The boys from Kigali, Rwanda and the girls from Cameroon. The two teams played for the first time and their performance was not ridiculous. On the contrary, they played very well and we think that if we had more resources, we could have great teams in Burkina Faso, who would be on par with the great volleyball countries.
Interview conducted by Mamadou ZONGO
Lefaso.net
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