French West African Cup

The French West African Cup or Coupe d'Afrique Occidentale Française was a football (soccer) tournament between clubs of the former French Western African territories.

This area comprised the current states of Benin (then Dahomey), Burkina Faso (then Haute-Volta), Guinea (Guinée), Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), Mali (then Soudan), Mauritania (Mauritanie), Niger and Senegal (Sénégal). The current Togo was not part of the A.O.F. but its clubs gained entrance to the tournament during the last five editions (first in 1955/56).

The Ligue d'AOF de Foot-Ball was created in March 1946 in Dakar. The only French Western African territory which refused to enter was Mauritania. The organisation was officially affiliated to the FFF (French FA) in 1951.

The Coupe d'AOF was created in 1947, when the president of the Ligue d'AOF, Mr. Barat, received a trophy from the FFF. He immediately announced a competition for the trophy, a Coupe du Sénégal, for clubs from the "4 communes du Sénégal", Dakar, Gorée, Rufisque and Saint-Louis. Sixteen clubs from these towns, all in current Senegal, entered the first round (1/8 finals) of the competition, played early April 1947. On the 17th of April, a new weekly sports magazine, "Afriqu'Sports", appeared in Dakar, referring to the competition as "Coupe d'AOF". This name was eventually taken up be the other media, and the second edition then indeed extended beyond Senegal. Shortly after the introduction of the football cup, similar tournaments were started in rugby (1951) and basketball (1952).

The first edition in 1947, restricted to Senegal, had 16 participants; the highest number of participants (302) was reached in 1958/59, while the final edition (as Coupe Interfédérale; the territories of French West Africa were gradually gaining independence at the time) still had 205 participants (the regions of Guinée and Côte d'Ivoire did not enter).

Winners

Season	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Losing Semifinalists
				lost to eventual winner	lost to eventual runner-up
1947	US Gorée	2 - 1	ASC Jeanne d'Arc	Espoir Saint-Louis	Espérance Rufisque
1948	Foyer France Sénégal	4 - 0	Jeunesse Club d'Abidjan	Saint-Louisienne	Racing Club de Conakry
1949	Racing Club de Dakar	3 - 0	Racing Club de Conakry	Espoir Saint-Louis	USC Bassam
1949/50	Racing Club de Conakry	4 - 2	Espoir Saint-Louis	USC Bassam	Jeanne d'Arc (Bamako)
1950/51	ASC Jeanne d'Arc	3 - 1	Jeanne d'Arc (Bamako)	Africa Sports	US Indigène
1951/52	ASC Jeanne d'Arc	2 - 0	Etoile Sportive Porto-Novo	Africa Sports	Foyer France Sénégal
1952/53	Jeanne d'Arc (Bamako)	3 - 1	Racing Club de Conakry	US Gorée	Jeunesse Club d'Abidjan
1953/54	US Gorée	1 - 0	Foyer du Soudan	Etoile Sportive Porto-Novo	Racing Club de Conakry
1954/55	US Gorée	7 - 0	ASEC Abidjan	AS Porto-Novo	Avenir Saint-Louis
1955/56	Jeanne d'Arc (Bamako)	3 - 0	ASEC Abidjan	Foyer France Sénégal	Essor
1956/57	Réveil de Saint-Louis	4 - 1	Africa Sports	Etoile Filante (Lomé)	Jeanne d'Arc (Bamako)
1957/58	Africa Sports	5 - 0	ASEC Abidjan	Foyer France Sénégal	Société Sportive de Guinée
1958/59	Saint-Louisienne	2 - 1	Modèle Lomé	Stella d'Abidjan	ASC Jeanne d'Arc
1960	Etoile Filante (Lomé)	2 - 1	Jeanne d'Arc (Bamako)	AS Cotonou	Saint-Louisienne