Souleiman Waberi’s grip on Djibouti football was challenged inside the federation’s own headquarters on Monday, where police presence paved the way for club presidents to hold a disputed meeting seeking his removal as president of the Djibouti football federation (FDF).
The FDF said officers first took control of its national technical centre at around 5.30pm on Sunday without producing an administrative document or court order. By Monday, the federation said, a significantly larger police contingent had ordered Waberi, executive committee members, staff and other federation officials to leave the premises.
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The FDF said 16 club presidents subsequently entered the building under police escort and held what it called a “purported” extraordinary general meeting (EGM). The federation rejected the gathering as unlawful, arguing that it had not been properly convened and that the notice periods and procedures set out in its statutes and electoral code had not been followed. It said any decisions made were “null and void”. Sources in Djibouti, however, maintained that the required number of delegates had attended. They said those delegates unanimously voted to dismiss Waberi and the executive committee and created an interim committee to run the federation.
The dispute follows weeks of intensifying opposition to Waberi, who sits on the Confederation of African Football (Caf) executive committee and Fifa’s council and is a close ally of Gianni Infantino. In early September, a coalition of 27 clubs said it planned to seek the executive committee’s removal, claiming it had obtained the two-thirds support required by the FDF’s statutes.
The FDF challenged that position, saying it has 67 members and that 45, rather than 27, would be needed to call an extraordinary assembly. The standoff deepened as more clubs and delegates joined the campaign against the executive committee. The government subsequently intervened, with the secretary of state for sport, Fatouma Ali Abdallah, instructing the FDF to convene an extraordinary general assembly within 72 hours.
The FDF has appealed to Fifa and Caf, arguing that deploying state security forces to remove elected officials may amount to government interference in the affairs of a national football association. It warned that Djibouti could face suspension, while its clubs and national teams could be barred from international competitions and development programmes and funding could be frozen. The Guardian has requested a comment from Fifa.
Waberi and several other officials are understood to face possible charges this week after police completed an investigation into suspected embezzlement and money laundering at the FDF. They were arrested in September 2024 after a government inspection found financial and administrative irregularities, including shortcomings in procurement, cash management and financial controls. The government inquiry also identified suspected anomalies in payments to third parties, unpaid tax on salaries and wages, and the “misuse of cash payments” amounting to almost £500,000. Police later conducted their own investigation.
Waberi has denied any wrongdoing. In August, after a club official accused the FDF of misusing funds, he said Fifa’s “monitoring mechanisms have revealed no indication of wrongdoing regarding the funds it disbursed”.
Fifa and Caf provide the FDF with more than $1m (£760,000) each year through Fifa’s forward development programme. The funding has supported football infrastructure and youth initiatives in Djibouti, including the Douda academy and artificial-pitch projects in Arta and Dikhil. However, several tenders are understood to be under investigation over alleged failures to follow standard procedures.
Several foreign workers who failed to meet immigration regulations were deported to their home countries, bringing construction work to a halt. Several Caf and Fifa employees and contractors have described the projects in Djibouti as “a complete farce”. “We pass on the information but nothing happens,” said one contractor. “The money has gone missing, the projects are never finished – or if they are, it’s just a bare-bones version – and nobody says a word. It breaks my heart for the young people who just want to play football.”
