The isolation of African sport could soon be a thing of the past. And he will owe, in part, to the organization every year of a convention of a unique kind on the continent, where the bench and the back bench of leaders, experts, consultants and sports decision-makers flock. Its name: the International Convention for Sport in Africa (CISA).
Its 7th edition lowered its curtain, Sunday May 5, at the King Fahd Palace in Dakar, capital of Senegal, after three long days of debates, meetings, conferences and exhibitions. Among the themes discussed, let us cite sponsorship in Africa, the role of audiovisual rights in the financing of sport, the future of the African Games, and finally the prospect of an African candidacy for the Olympic Games.
Diamil Faye, the president of the company organizing the event, Jappo, said it again and again at the conclusion of the Convention: CISA constitutes to date “the only platform networking Africa with the rest of the world. » It provides the continent with a gateway to the rest of the planet. A particularly busy gateway this year, just a few months before an IOC General Assembly where both the host city of the 2020 Games and the name of Jacques Rogge's successor in the president's chair will be decided.
Proof of the interest given by the sports movement to the CISA 2013, and more broadly to African sport, the presence in Dakar, during the three days of the Convention, of representatives of the three candidate cities for the 2020 Games. Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo had sent a delegation to Senegal. They knew how to get noticed. Ali Kiremitçioğlu, the director of Istanbul 2020, did not miss the opportunity to promise African leaders to put their athletes, in the event of a Turkish victory next September, in the "best conditions of preparation and stay to achieve the greatest performance. »
Another sign that Dakar was, for three days, the place to be at the beginning of May: the presence on the podium, or more discreetly in the audience, of a handful of IOC members. Andrés Botero Phillipsbourne, the Colombian Minister of Sports, took the opportunity to sign on behalf of his country a sports cooperation agreement with Senegal (our photo). Ser Miang Ng, vice-president of the IOC (and almost declared candidate to succeed Jacques Rogge), took the floor and gave his point of view to one of the most followed themes of the Convention: “Organization of major events in Africa: football, a necessary step towards the Olympic Games? » A way like any other for the leader of Singapore, in short, to campaign. Mustapha Larfaoui, former president of FINA and honorary member of the IOC, left Dakar with an additional distinction: his place for eternity in the Pantheon of glory of African sport.
The next edition of CISA already knows its setting. It will take place in 2014 on the island of Sal, in Cape Verde. Africa could well prove to be even less isolated. And more and more coveted.
