Ligue 1 – Mali: the Malian Stadium in difficulty
The first leg of Mali’s national football championship (Ligue 1) ended on Wednesday with late matches played in both groups. The observation, after 9 days, is that the reigning champion, Stade Malien de Bamako (14 points), is in difficulty in Group A.
Even if the club has chained two victories at the end of this first leg, it occupies only 5th place with 3 wins, 5 draws and one defeat. The Stadistes are overtaken by CS Dougouwolonfila (1st, 18 points), USC Kita (2nd, 17 points), Lafia Club of Bamako (3rd, 15 points) and AS Réal of Bamako (4th, 15 points). In this group, it is the CASS of Sévaré (Mopti) which brings up the rear with only 2 points in 9 days.
This difficult start led the leaders of the Stade Malien in Bamako to separate from their coach, the Ivorian Rigos Gervais, who immediately left his bags in Burkina Faso after a very brief stint at US Bougouni. He is now replaced by Nouhoum Diané. coach of vice-champions of Africa at CHAN in Cameroon. The latter had already had to lead the Whites (Stade Malien) between 2017 and 2019 with a Mali cup to his credit.
Nouhoum Diané, savior of the Stadium
Eliminated in the African Champions League and in the CAF Cup framing round, the club’s ambition is to achieve the cup-championship double at the end of the season. This is therefore the mission entrusted to Nouhoum Diané. It should also be noted that AS Réal Bamako got rid of his coach, the Franco-Algerian Kamel Djabour, at the end of this first leg.
On the other hand Djoliba AC (DAC), the great rival of Stade Malien, is respected in group B which it dominates with 19 points (5 wins and 4 draws). The Reds (DAC) are followed by Yeleen Olympique (2nd with 16 points) from the former Malian international and “ Golden Ball ” (2007), Frédéric Oumar Kanouté; and the Korofina Sports Association (ASKO, 3rd with 14 points)…
AS Nianan from Koulikoro (9th with 8 points) and Sonni AC from Gao (10th with 4 points) bring up the rear. They will try to move away from this red zone during the second phase of Ligue 1 at the end of which the first two of each group will qualify for the Square of AS and the last two will be relegated to the lower division.
