Football in Mali

In Mali, football is played widely and followed avidly. Large professional clubs and international competition draw much popular attention, and the sport is played as a pastime.

The most popular sport in Mali is football (soccer), which rose to the level of national obsession when Mali was chosen to host the 2002 African Cup of Nations. Most towns have professional or semi-professional men's clubs which play in one national (professional) league and two regional (semi professional) leagues. A majority of clubs are based in Bamako, the capital city, and the most popular teams nationally, Djoliba AC, Stade Malien, and Real Bamako, all play there.

People play football widely, with formal fields in almost every town of any size, and pickup games among children common in a country with few luxuries. Informal games are often played by youths using a bundle of rags as a ball.

Men's soccer has so far outpaced the women's game—or any other sport—as the focus of public attention as a spectator sport.

The French introduced the game to what was then French Soudan in the early 20th century, and the first organised leagues open to Africans appeared in the 1930s. Jeanne d'Arc du Soudan, founded in 1938 by two French-Africans and the missionary Révérend Père Bouvier, borrowed its name from the Senegalese club Jeanne d'Arc Dakar, and was originally a club of mixed race Bamako Metis playing against white colonials. A handful of African clubs developed after the Second World War, competing locally and against teams from around French West Africa, dominated by the clubs of Senegal. Foyer du Soudan (later Djoliba AC) and JA du Soudan competed in the French West African Cup from the late 1940s until 1959, as well as local leagues (Bamako League) and the "coupe du Soudan" (1947-1959).