The Walias Play Senegal at Bahir Dar, Ethiopia's First Home Qualifier in Years

Ethiopia's national football team played Senegal at Bahir Dar Stadium on Tuesday in qualifying for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations — the Walias' first competitive match in front of their own supporters, in their own country, in years.

Kick-off was set for 10:00 on the Ethiopian clock, or 16:00 local time. No result was available at the time of writing.

Tickets at 500, 200 and 100 birr

Tickets were sold online through eff-tickets.com and in person at the front entrance of the Azwa Hotel, priced at 500, 200 and 100 birr by standard. By mid-afternoon thousands of Bahir Dar residents had gathered near the stadium, many in national colours, with queues at the designated ticket counters.

Ethiopia is in Group 10 of qualifying for the 2027 tournament, which is being hosted jointly by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Why a home fixture is a commercial event

Ethiopia has spent years playing designated home matches abroad, at neutral venues that met continental stadium requirements when domestic grounds did not. Every one of those fixtures exported the entire economic value of a home game — the gate, the hospitality, the hotel nights, the transport, the informal trade that assembles around a full stadium — to another country.

Staging the fixture at Bahir Dar returns that value, and puts it in a regional city rather than the capital. For a city whose visitor economy is built on Lake Tana and a seasonal tourism calendar, a sold-out international with a Senegalese travelling contingent is a demand event outside the usual season, and a test of whether the city's accommodation and transport can absorb one.

The certification question underneath it is the durable one. A domestic venue cleared for competitive continental football is infrastructure that can be booked again — for qualifiers, for club competition, for the commercial fixtures that follow a venue once it is on the list.

Open

Neither the Ethiopian Football Federation nor the organisers have published attendance or gate receipts, and no statement has been made on whether Bahir Dar will host Ethiopia's remaining home fixtures in the group.

Sources: Fana Television, 29 September 2026, Tikvah Ethiopia, 28 September 2026