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Ph/DR: Mr. Yacine Idriss DIALLO, president of the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF)
President of the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF), Yacine Idriss Diallo recently opened up to journalist Cheik Yvhane as part of his column called “Meeting of minds” published in the Eponyme magazine n° 41 of January-February 2024. Below are some excerpts from this exclusive interview.
What is your level of involvement as president of the FIF, in the management of the coach within the national team?
Yacine Idriss Diallo: The role of the president is to choose a coach who meets all the conditions. Once he has chosen, he gives him the means of his policy. Once he gave him the means for his policy. Once he has given him the means for his policy, he lets him work. I don’t interfere in the coach’s choices. If he needs to ask me questions, he asks them. I give him my point of view. But, it is he who decides which player he selects, why and how he chooses him. It would be paradoxical to pay a lot of money for someone who is an expert in their field, and do their job for them! Let everyone do their job.
But you are still accountable for the performances of the national team?
I’m. Only in part. We can therefore say, from there, that I am also an accountant; since it was me who chose the coach and it’s still me who provides the means. I can’t cope. If there are things that work, that’s great. If there are things that aren’t going well, it’s my role to correct them. So, I necessarily have an involvement in the organization of results and performance.
“I would love to be a scorer, but I don’t have that talent! »
Obviously, it’s not me who would score goals. It’s not me who’s going to stop the balls as a goalkeeper either; but if I choose the best goalkeeper next to the coach, if the latter has chosen the best Ivorian players, who are also in good health, the most efficient in their clubs, that we put them on the field, that ‘We trained them… Once they show up on the field, what do you want us to do? I would love to be a scorer, but I don’t have that talent!
You have experience of continental competitions. How do we face such a CAN; moreover on its own land?
(Laughs) Yes, it’s true, I have around forty years of experience in this industry. Because I have been a football fan since my student days. We approach a competition like this at first with a lot of humility; because it is the first time that Ivory Coast has organized a CAN of this scale. In reality, in 1984, Ivory Coast replaced a country which could not organize it.
“It is up to me, with self-sacrifice, to do the best I can…”
But this time, it’s at our request. We organized it the way we wanted to organize it. It is a unique moment in the history of a nation, and in particular for a president of a federation. It is up to me, with self-sacrifice, to do the best so that not only is the organization good through the work that falls under COCAN, but also that the sporting result is of quality, to please the nation.
The Ivorian team is relatively young. Is this a handicap?
Youth is not a handicap, but an advantage. This is the advantage of carelessness and also that of the opportunity to earn your place. Today, boys like Mbappé or Haland are under 25 years old. Yet they are the leaders of their respective teams. Mbappé played his first World Cup at 19. Youth is not a handicap. On the other hand, you have to be able to play experienced and young players, so that the chemistry takes hold in the group, and makes it solid.
What message do you want to send to the players of the national team?
I just tell them: listen guys, we’re extraordinarily lucky. Out of 30 million inhabitants, there are 25 or 27 of you at most. For me, you are the chosen ones. Consider yourself as such.
“For me, God is at the beginning, center and end of everything”
When God gives you the chance to be elected, take it. Have no regrets. Play hard. Be humble, diligent and hardworking. Then whatever God decides will come.
To the Ivorians, what is the message?
May the Ivorians trust us. However, they have to be tolerant, because being on a football field is not easy. It’s having pressure. So we need to feel them around us, with real solidarity and support from the first to the last minute.
God has a special place in your life. You also say that he never abandoned you…
I always say “Amin”, because when I see the path I have traveled, I think that I have no particular merit. Except for the fact that God chose me and gave me a certain number of values, which, in all humility, taught me to work to get where I am. So, for me, God is at the beginning, center and end of everything!
(Source: Eponyme Magazine n° 41 of January-February 2024)
