The Malagasy government had not paid the residence fee of its national team during the November 2021 Worlds in Spain.
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In the jargon of the petanque, the expression that would prevail to qualify the situation would be “taking a fanny”. A humiliation equivalent to a 13-0. It is the spirit that emanated from the press release, Friday, March 11, to the Malagasy government by the International Federation of Pétanque and Provencal Game (FIPJP).
The Federation announced Priver Madagascar of competition for one year until the government repaid the residence fee of its national team during the November 2021 Worlds in Spain. The FIPJP does not chew the words from the Malagasy executive, denouncing an “unworthy behavior”. “Oddly, only on-site have been settled the travel expenses of the Minister of Sports, Hawel Mamod’ali, who has never shown his presence and director of sports (…)”, points the Fipjp.
After several days of “revolt” on social networks where petanque fans have not hidden their bitterness, the boss of the Malagasy Federation, Amiroudine Andrialemirovason, said Thursday, March 17 that the government had finally honored its unpaid bills . “Negotiations are in progress,” he said at a press conference. “Everything should come back in order since the bottom of the problem has been settled”, he hopes.
Sport flagship on the big island
Will the FIPJP raise its sanctions? Nothing is less sure. Until further notice, Malagasy boullates are private in Middle in May in Denmark and representation at the Indian Ocean Islands games, which must be held on the Great Island in 2023.
Behind this case, is drawn the lack of public support suffered by athletes, all disciplines. Even professionals, number of athletes are forced to cumulate several jobs at a time to live and finance their sports practice. Some prefer to throw the sponge. Ironically, Pétanque is a flagship sport on the Great Island, where Malagasy – Men, Women and Youth – regularly win global and continental titles. In November 2021 in Spain, the Malagasy team had brilliantly defended the colors of the country, arriving second of the competition.
This is not the first time the country is accused of being bad payer. Thus, it is learned in the FIPJP communiqué, in 2019, during the African petanque championships in Lomé, the former boss of Boulties Malagasy, who died in April 2021, had to finance on his own funds the coming of the ‘national team against an oral promise of the executive to reimburse him. “It cost him about 50,000 euros, who added themselves to pressures of all kinds, including economic in his work,” writes the Federation without specifying if Mr. Randriamarohaja had finally been reimbursed.