CAF President, Dr. Patrice Motsepe, addressed executives of African football federations and delegates at the 46th Ordinary General Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday.
Motsepe highlighted the growth African football has witnessed in recent times, adding that more private bodies must help in financing the game of football in order to ensure its maximum development on the continent.
“Good progress has been made,” the CAF President stated. “We’re going to pass an Exco resolution in the next few days, open a tender and invite many of the private companies, private enterprises to bid and to be part of this plan in CAF to make sure that over the next eight years, there’s $1 billion that is being made available for football, every cent of that money must go towards football development.
“And part of the plan is to ensure that if we can get every African nation or every member association to receive $1 million, to receive $1 million every year from CAF starting in 2026, a lot of good progress will have been made.”
The South African further added that he hopes an African nation can lift the FIFA World Cup soon and follow in the footsteps of Argentina.
“We’ve got the president of CONMEBOL, Argentina, that is currently the champions of the world, and we’ve made it very clear that we have confidence that in the not-too-distant future, an African nation will be champion of the world,” he said.
“And that’s why whenever we give awards, particularly at the AFCON, whenever we hand over trophies, I invite Gianni [Infantino] so that he can get used to giving trophies to African nations and the African clubs.”
Motsepe beckoned on African nations to continue to strive for seriousness on the world stage and praised the ‘zero tolerance’ approach to corruption at CAF.
He added: “I’ve said many times, the success of African football is what happens in every one of the 54 nations in Africa. That is the foundation. There is a test, and that’s why a lot of focus has to be on that.”
“There’s a recognition in Africa. There’s a recognition in the world that there’s zero tolerance… There’s zero tolerance for corruption at CAF.
“The zero tolerance for bribery, zero tolerance for violation and not respecting the CAF and FIFA statutes and regulations. And a huge amount of progress has been made. I’m very proud of the word that the CAF Secretariat is doing. And as I said, I’m also proud of the attitude within the exco to really enforce this.”
This comes after reports suggested that Motsepe is set to be reelected as CAF president after securing the support of a majority of regional associations.
The football bodies reportedly met over the weekend and unanimously approved Motsepe’s candidature for a second term.
The West African Football Union (WAFU), the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA), Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) and the Central African Football Federations’ Union (UNIFFAC) have all supported his return.
However, only the Union of North African Football (UNAF) voted against his return.
