The financial treatment of football players in Senegal: A real indicator of the limits of professionalization

This study looks at the financial treatment of professional soccer players in Senegal. It examines their remuneration and the existence of contracts in accordance with the legal provisions governing this sector of activity in Senegal. The intention is to analyze salaries and the effectiveness of their rights in terms of social security coverage. To this end, the field survey fieldwork is based on the use of a questionnaire for players and semi-structured interviews with coaches/managers and club managers.The results reveal major shortcomings in the salary treatment of players in the professional soccer league. Less than a tenth of players do not have approved contracts. These contracts are often of short duration, with 73.4% of players having contracts of 2 years or less. This can be explained by the fact that clubs do not take risks to secure the services of a player who may be injured or under-performing. Furthermore, salaries are very low and are often paid late. Their social rights are not respected, as 27.33% have no social security cover. The same applies to 98.56% of them, including their families (wives and children).