Specialization of Beninese sports journalists : The FBHB and the APS- Benin lays the groundwork

Benin now has the cream of sports journalists and consultants with the necessary skills to highlight Beninese handball. There are nearly thirty of them receiving four days of training on Tuesdays 14 Saturday 18 November on handball with French journalist commentator Jocelyn Veluire and consultant Amélie Goudjo, former captain of the French handball team. This training which took place at Nobila Airport Hotel in Cotonou is the result of collaboration between the Benin Handball Federation and the Benin Sports Press Association (APS-BENIN).

Out of around sixty sports journalists and consultants who expressed their willingness to take part in this training, 20 sports reporters and 6 consultants were retained after sorting. The latter were subjected for four days to theoretical and practical courses on the tools and methods to properly comment on a handball match., conduct an interview and produce a match report. A training which aims to be the start of a great adventure for the beneficiaries with the Beninese handball management body. Car, they are now the pioneers to have the privilege of constituting the database of sports journalists specialized in this sporting discipline. “I no longer need to specify how important you are to us. We are doing work and we consider that you are a very essential link in the system that we have decided to put in place to build a sports industry around handball” specifies Sidikou Karimou, president of the Beninese Handball Federation while addressing the trainees during the opening ceremony of the training.

This therefore means that the basis of the specialization of sports reporters which constitutes one of the priorities of the Sports Press Association of Benin (APS-BENIN) from birth takes shape. “Our fundamental objective is to ensure that the quantity we produce rhymes with quality. And when we talk about the quality of the sports press, this obviously goes with the training curricula to be made available to colleagues” says Akimey Housseini, president of APS-Benin. This training which thus responds to one of the concerns of Beninese sports journalists and other handball players who wish to better recharge their batteries for good collaboration with the world of media.

Full box in a short time

In a Cartesian approach, the two expert trainers, namely Jocelyn Veluire, French sports journalist, commentator and Amélie Goudjo, former captain of the French handball team, took advantage of the little time to equip the participants with the workings of handball jargon. From their professional experiences to the practical phase in the field through the theoretical notions received in the classroom, the trainers brought a little bit of know-how to make the beneficiaries capable.

This capacity building seminar being initiated as part of the Play-offs of the Moov Africa Pro Handball League season 2023, the participants had the opportunity to put into practice the concepts received in the room on the matches on the program throughout the training period. The fundamentals of a TV broadcast, l’interview (theoretical contribution and analysis of video extracts), the summary in written press and online, the TV set are among other notions instilled in this wave of sports reporters and handball consultants. Something to delight the trainees who, through their spokesperson Ambroise Zinsou thanked the Benin Handball Federation-APS-BENIN tandem for this opportunity offered to them.

They also expressed their gratitude to the trainers.. The initiative according to, the second vice-president of APS-Benin in charge of training Axel Epiphane Bognanho came at the right time given the challenges facing sports journalism today. President Sidikou Karimou rightly urges the beneficiaries to be worthy ambassadors of the Beninese Handball Federation within their corporation. “You were 61 and there is only 20, you have a duty to learn and learn well but also to give back. Car, it’s by trying to share that we find that we have benefited from what we have learned,” he says.. All trainees have received their parchment.

Edmond HOUESSIKINDE