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 Ligue d'AOF de Foot-Ball was created in March 1946 in Dakar.
Sixteen clubs from these towns, all in current Senegal, entered the first round (1/8 finals) of the competition, played early April 1947.
On 17 April, a new weekly sports magazine, "Afriqu'Sports", appeared in Dakar, referring to the competition as "Coupe d'AOF".
Shortly after the introduction of the football cup, similar tournaments were started in rugby (1951) and basketball (1952).