By Jennifer Browning | Partnerships Director
Ladies’ Turn had an exciting summer. Seyni Ndir Seck, our President, was invited by FIFA to come to their headquarters in Zurich on May 21, 2026 and assist with the official draw for the Under 17 (U-17) Women’s World Cup which will take place in Morocco from October 17 to November 7, 2026. This is a huge honor. Seyni was selected along with Babett Peter who played for the German national team when they won the 2007 World Cup, the 2009 Euro Championship, and gold in the 2016 Summer Olympics. Here’s a video of the draw bookmarked to when they introduce Seyni and then Babett.
Unfortunately, Senegal didn’t qualify for the U-17 World Cup this time, but we’ll root for the other African teams- Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and Zambia. The US and France are also competing.
Seyni also assisted in the draw for 2026 Youth Olympic Futsal Tournaments which will held in Dakar from November 1-12, 2026, as part of the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026. The Senegalese men’s and women’s youth futsal teams will compete. Interestingly “futsal” is a term that originated in the US although we more commonly call the game "indoor soccer." Alexander Para, the founder of the United States Futsal Federation (USFF), created the term in 1981. He blended the Spanish words for soccer (fútbol) and room (salón) into a single term to make it easier to rent gym spaces from schools, which were hesitant to host "indoor soccer" games because they were worried soccer balls flying around would damage the buildings.
Ladies’ Turn also partnered with the organization Mission Mama to host an educational week on breast cancer from June 26- July 3 in Dakar. Mission MAMA is a French endowment fund dedicated to improving access to information, early screening, referral, and treatment for breast diseases in low-resource areas. To increase awareness of breast cancer by reaching a greater public audience, we organized a soccer festival on June 28, 2026 that brought together 12 women’s soccer academies. Alongside the games, Ladies’ Turn and Mission Mama provided information on breast cancer prevention to the players and crowds watching the games. Mission Mama also offered free breast consultations at local hospitals.
While not the main focus of the soccer festival, the fact that there are now 12 women’s soccer academies to invite is a huge victory in itself. When we started working on women’s soccer in 2009, there were no women’s soccer academies, only a plethora of men’s. Now girls can start playing soccer in these academies from a young age.
Seyni also represented Ladies’ Turn at the IWG Global Summit on Women and Sport from July 9-11, 2026, in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The IWG Global Summit is the world’s largest gathering focused on advancing opportunities for women and girls in and through sport. The Conference of Ministers of Youth and Sport of La Francophonie (CONFEJES) sponsored part of Seyni’s trip. Attending the Summit is great exposure for Ladies' Turn to promote women’s soccer in Senegal and our work at the internaitonal level. At the same moment as the conference, Seyni was also featured in this Seneweb article for those of you who want to practice your French!
Thank you for all of your support through these years. We could not do it without you!
Nio far, In Solidarity,
Jennifer and the Ladies’ Turn Team
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By Jennifer Browning | Partnerships Director
By Jennifer Browning | Partnerships Director
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