The president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Patrice Motsepe has spoken out about a number of things which he believes can take the beautiful game forward.
Speaking on Wednesday, Motsepe said that each an every country needs to have stadiums, which are approved by CAF.
Some African countries, especially those in Southern Africa like Zimbabwe, Lesotho, eSwatini and Namibia have been playing their home games in South Africa because they don’t have CAF approved stadiums.
“We need to make sure that every country in Africa, you play football in front of your fans at home. We need you all to play football in your country and it’s part of the commitment of $1 billion from CAF that I spoke about. We need to build stadiums in every country, of course FIFA and CAF standard ones. African football must be exciting,” Motsepe said.
“I am working and I will be visiting again the various heads of States. African football must succeed. It must be world class and be as good as the best in the world. There must be enormous progress and financial commitments.”
The former Sundowns president insisted that players should be paid well in order for football to progress.
“There is money coming in football, so we got to pay our footballers well. We gave $50,000 to the clubs taking part in the Champions League & Confederation Cup prelims for the first ever and we got plans to even do more,” Motsepe said.
“We are there to help every single club, but we have to send a serious message that people come to stadiums. It should be a place of safety, enjoyment and not a place of disturbances and uprisings. One of the supporters almost fell down and lost the life . We have zero tolerance for that.”
Meanwhile, Motsepe announced the renewal of a partnership with freight and logistics company Africa Global Logistics for the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and 2026 WAFCON.
