Garba Yaya: “We need the expression of pétanque…”

Make Beninese petanque shine more. This is the objective pursued by the Beninese Federation of Petanque. And to achieve this goal, investments must be made. 11.925.000 F.CFA, this is the total amount of subsidies allocated by the FBP to the various regional leagues and 136 clubs. At the end of this ceremony, Garba Yaya, President of the Beninese Federation of Petanque lent himself to our questions. Read instead !!!

After the subsidy received from the Ministry of Sports, it's payout time?

It must be said that we benefited from a grant of 50 million divided into two tranches. A slice to animate the national plan and the other to take part in international competitions or on the continental level. For a long time, we are used to giving subsidies to the leagues because the permanent animation of petanque comes down to these decentralized structures. And since last year we started thinking directly about clubs. They were entitled to certain materials that we gave them. This year, we estimated that each club already has the material. Reason why, we have decided to grant them a grant to help them.

On what basis packages were allocated to different clubs

Each department hosts the championship and the movement that each team will make depends on the size of the department in question.. If we take for example the Atacora the clubs are more than 100km apart and to come and take part in a Departmental Championship the distance is much greater. So we felt that the clubs of Atacora must have more subsidy than the clubs of the Atlantic-Littoral where with a zemidjan we can return to the place of the competition. So on until the end. This is the criterion that guided us in the distribution of subsidies.

And at league level, how it was done?

For the leagues, we took the criteria of the animation of petanque. The leagues that animate better are the Atlantique-Littoral, Borgou-Alibori and Ouémé-Plateau. If you go to Borgou-Alibori, every Sunday there is a competition called Lap by Lap and from that moment on, these leagues have had at least 1 million each. The other leagues we accompanied them to give them the taste of animation and that they take the foot on the three flagship leagues : it is the Mono-Couffo, Zou-Collines of course which must come up to the others. Atacora has already taken part with their new president by organizing competitions regularly and that's what we need. We need the expression of petanque and it is a sport that is played at any age. From the youngest 8 at 9 years old and at the oldest 69-75 years old it is played. And it is a safe sport.

Apparently you are a satisfied president because your discipline is full of enough licensees?

Shalom Gnambode won in the final ahead of Aziz Dandjinou, today without fault modesty, it is the discipline that abounds with the most licensees. Far from there, it is the discipline that is still the best animated throughout the national territory. Even more particularly, it is the discipline that reveals Benin on the international and continental level. Several times, we climbed on the roof of Africa and we were vice-world champion. This denotes somewhere that it is a discipline that must be taken seriously and I want proof that today President Patrice Talon has taken the measure of things. By agreeing to organize the World Cup in Benin. It is because he knows that this discipline can reveal more Benin. This is why he provides, make us a bowling alley of international standards never built in Africa. We are proud of him and we hope it will hold.

Will Benin be ready in September 2023 to host this world meeting of boules sports?

Madagascar, Senegal and Morocco have hosted World Cups but in makeshift bowling alleys. Our country does not want the loan, our country wants to make the mark of champions. This is why the president has decided that the world cup is played in a bowling alley well built to international standards. The site is known and people have already been compensated. Today, we are ready for the architect to start. It is precisely because of Covid-19 that travel costs have increased. The Ministry of Sports is obliged to revise its copy upwards to be successful in achieving the objectives. Let me tell you, it's a tidy sum of 9 billions to build the bowling alley of international standards never built in Africa even in the whole world. It's because we want people that things are a little slow. See you in September 2023.

Interview by: Damien TOLOMISSI