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JOHANNESBURG. — CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, has raised the bar for African national football teams by insisting one of them must win the World Cup soon.
The South African billionaire took as the leader of African football in a campaign that received strong backing from the COSAFA regional bloc, last Friday.
“An African team must win the World Cup in the near future,” said the 59-year-old, at a press conference, here.
The mining magnate promised to quit after his four-year term if CAF “does not make real progress” under his leadership.
“I have no doubt in my mind that I am not going to be president of an organisation which four years from now has not had significant, tangible, practical, assessable progress – it is not going to happen,” he said.
“We must stop being excessively pessimistic and negative (about the World Cup), there is no continent that has succeeded by dwelling on its failures.”
No African team has gone beyond the quarter-finals of the World Cup, and only Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) have got that far.
Africa fared dismally at the last World Cup, in Russia three years ago, with her five representatives — Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia – being eliminated after the group stage.
“I am confident African football will succeed, become self sufficient, and the best in the world,” predicted the owner of 2016 CAF Champions League winners Mamelodi Sundowns.
He said he wanted the AFCON to continue, as a two-yearly tournament, despite suggestions from FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, that it be staged every four years.
The biggest sporting occasion in Africa has traditionally been held during January and February, triggering tug-of-wars between European clubs, and national teams, for the service of players.
When Cameroon were crowned African champions in 2017, they did so without seven potential first-choice players, who feared falling out of favour at their clubs had they travelled to Gabon.
Ahmad moved the 2019 finals to June-July in Egypt, but coaches and players involved in early kickoffs railed against the 40 degree celsius heat.
The delayed 2021 tournament will revert next year to a January-February time slot because host nation Cameroon experiences torrential mid-year rain.
Motsepe said the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup prize money was unacceptably low, echoing the complaints of many club officials, who say they compete at a loss.
“When Sundowns won the Champions League, I had to give some of my personal funds to the players because the prize money was insufficient.”
Champions League winners pocket US$2.5 million (2.1 million euros) and clubs winning the Confederation Cup, the African equivalent of the UEFA Europa League, become US$1.25 million richer.
Answering a question about whether he had ambitions to be FIFA president, Motsepe said:
“Absolutely not. Infantino is doing a great job and must be supported.”
FIFA-brokered talks played a significant role in the election of Motsepe, who was chosen after his rivals, Ivorian Jacques Anouma, Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya and Senegalese Augustin Senghor, withdrew.
Yahya and Senghor will become vice-presidents of the Cairo-based organisation and Anouma a special advisor to Motsepe.
The ninth-richest man in Africa, Motsepe is eyeing wholesale change as he looks to restore credibility to an organisation mired in controversy in recent times.
His predecessor Ahmad was barred from last week’s elections, on account of his two-year ban by FIFA.
“We need to get the private sector to sponsor African football. We must increase the sponsorship for the Nations Cup and make it more substantial.
‘’We must increase the sponsorship for the African Champions League significantly more.’’
Chief among Motsepe’s issues is the fact that many countries in Africa cannot watch the Champions League, Confederation Cup, African Nations Championship nor Nations Cup qualifiers.
SuperSport cancelled a TV deal worth over US$200m in late 2019.
“In South Africa, huge money is spent for people to watch European football, and it’s wonderful, but we want them to spend huge money watching football in Africa,” he said.
At Friday’s General Assembly, CAF revealed they lost US$10.4m, for the 2019-20 financial year, with a loss of US$13.7m expected for 2020-21 while there were hopes that 2021-22 may result in a reduced negative of just over US$3m.
The new CAF president’s ultimate dream is that all African countries will be self-sustainable, so much so that the continent’s clubs will have the money to keep players at home – which happens in few nations at present.
“We need money to pay the players competitively because we will not be able to keep the best players in Africa in Africa – for the medium-to-long term – if we don’t compete,” he said.
“I know from experience that there are some leagues in Europe where we pay players more in South Africa – such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway and others.”
Motsepe’s leadership is set to greatly differ from his predecessors, who tended to brook no criticism while keeping power in the hands of relatively few.
“We have got to allow people to disagree with the president, to give the president different views.
“By 2050, we will have the youngest population in the world in Africa.
“If we do not give a future to those young people, we will have persistent instability, uprising, civil wars — football has a unique role to play.”
Online Reporter