October 2 – LaLiga has signed a multi-year consultancy agreement with Chad’s Ministry of Youth and Sports aimed at rebuilding the country’s football structures, from talent identification and coaching through to league reform and the creation of a new national academy.
The Chadian Football Association is still in a process of rebuilding following suspension by FIFA in 2021 after government authorities stripped it of its powers and took control of its HQ. The suspension was lifted later that year, but FIFA and CAF subsequently installed a normalisation committee after identifying problems with the federation’s statutes and its ability to hold elections properly.
The long period of disruption ended with the election of Tahir Oloy Hassan as federation president in March 2025. His programme included reforming competition governance, regional leagues, coach education and the national teams – several of the same areas now sitting inside LaLiga’s brief.
The first phase will see LaLiga help run a nationwide talent identification programme, develop a monitoring system for players, advise on the planned National Academy and provide training for coaches, directors and sports administrators.
Perhaps more importantly, it will also carry out a strategic review of Chad’s domestic league and draw up recommendations for how it should be restructured and developed.
Chad only returned to a nationwide championship format in 2025/26, when a 12-club national league replaced the previous end-of-season championship play-off model.
Minister of Youth and Sports Naïr Abakar said: “Our ambition for Chadian football is to give our young players the right environment in which to develop, enable our clubs to grow and make our league more competitive. We have chosen this partnership with LALIGA to help fulfil that ambition. It combines recognised expertise in professional football with the local knowledge and commitment of our football community. Together, we want to build a programme whose results can be seen in players’ careers, coaches’ work and the day-to-day life of our clubs.”
The next step is to get the National Academy operational, standardising development processes and putting the league recommendations into practice.
It is LaLiga’s first consultancy project of this type in sub-Saharan Africa. The Spanish league says it has now worked on more than 1,000 sporting projects across 60 countries since 2015.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas said: “LaLiga is delighted to be able to support Chad in this project. The consultancy projects we carry out in different parts of the world allow us to share our knowledge and methodology, always working hand in hand with local institutions and professionals and adapting to the particularities of each country. Through this collaboration, we want to help generate knowledge, capabilities and tools that can continue to develop sustainably over time”.
The agreement also lands during a wider push by LaLiga in Africa. Its matches are now distributed by DAZN across 48 sub-Saharan African markets under a three-season rights agreement running through 2028/29, although the Chad consultancy sits separately from that commercial deal.
Chad is currently 183rd in FIFA’s men’s world ranking, giving the development programme a platform to leave something behind once the consultants have gone.
Trésor Penku, Managing Director of LaLiga in Africa, said: “This collaboration represents an opportunity to put LaLiga’s knowledge and experience at the service of football development in Chad, working alongside local institutions and professionals to build solid and sustainable foundations.
“We want to support this process from a comprehensive perspective, combining talent, training, methodology and the strengthening of local capabilities, so that the knowledge acquired remains within the country’s football ecosystem and contributes to its long-term development”.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at harry.ewing@insideworldfootball.com
