Gianni Infantino
FIFA president has big plans for Africa
“Competitions in Africa are maybe 30 or 40 or 50 times less successful than in Europe”
Revolutionary new plans are being proposed for the future of African football as FIFA president Gianni Infantino suggests a dramatic overhaul to invigorate the continent’s prospects, with the beleaguered Confederation of African Football scurrying to keep up.
It includes a change to the frequency of the Africa Cup of Nations finals, which has already had its immediate dates altered; the creation of an African “Super League”; professionalisation of referees; and much more competition at all levels for men and women.
These ideas come after a six-month stint in charge at CAF headquarters in Cairo for FIFA general-secretary Fatma Samoura. She was there with the purpose of cleaning house, although success has yet to be seen and she departed with CAF’s marketing and TV deal with long-time French partners Lagardere Sports having been unilaterally cancelled, setting up a potentially costly court showdown.
Samoura was parachuted in after CAF president Ahmad had been reported to FIFA’s ethics committee. Yet despite all the damning evidence he remains in power, allowing Infantino to manoeuvre his plans through an acquiescent CAF executive committee.
Infantino, as was the case with predecessor Sepp Blatter, commands loyalty from Africa’s football associations because he holds the real purse strings and, with promises of vastly increased
benefits, they will be more than happy to agree to his proposals.
The major one is the Cup of Nations, which Infantino claims would make better commercial sense being played every four years. He believes less frequency means more prestige and will attract better sponsors, although this is a hunch and not yet a reality.
The Cup of Nations is held every two years because it is CAF’s only real source of revenue. Although that is less so these days – as FIFA sends Cairo plenty of cash – it has certainly been the case over the last three decades.
It also used to be argued by Issa Hayatou, CAF’s president for almost 30 years, that it created much-needed infrastructure as host nations were forced into building new or renovating neglected stadia by the prestige of staging the tournament.
“But I don’t see any proliferation of infrastructure and, in terms of revenues, it is miles away from any decent competition,” argues Infantino.
“Maybe there is a good reason other confederations play their competitions every four years. For one thing, exclusivity brings value.”
Infantino had already forced a change in the timing of the hosting of the 2021 Cup of Nations, although this is because of his expanded Club World Cup in June and July next year.
That was when the next Cup of
Nations was supposed to be staged in Cameroon, but that has now been brought forward and will run from January 9 to February 6, 2021.
That old chestnut about the weather was rolled out again to try give a different reason for the change but it remains a nonsense argument. If football in Africa is supposedly at such variance to the rain, how do the various domestic competitions manage to fulfill their fixtures year after year?
In March CAF will get an idea as to whether Cameroon will be able to manage when the country hosts the African Nations Championship, the competition for teams made up of homebased players only.
CHAN, as it is better known, will likely go in Infantino’s new plan. It is a B-class tournament that receives undeserved A international status.
“I hope CAF has realised that the time has come to change everything,” says the FIFA president. “That’s why I proposed the creation of a pan-African super league of 20 to 24 clubs which could generate at least $200million per year. Then Africa you can start retaining players and showing the world the quality of its competition.”
Infantino’s point is that the African
Champions League has no allure because all the star African players are overseas. There are more than 1,000 players earning a decent professional living abroad and as many more trying to find fame and fortune in Europe.
The African Champions League was reorganised in 1997 to try to replicate its European counterpart but has bumbled along over the last two decades without capturing the continent’s – never mind the world’s – imagination.
“Competitions in Africa are maybe 30 or 40 or 50 times less successful than in Europe,” speculates Infantino.
The other blight of the African game is theft and fraud. FIFA still conveniently averts its gaze to administrative graft when it is politically expedient to do so, but Infantino is looking to tackle the problem of corrupt match officials.
He says: “One of the major problems is when referees are not paid, or political influence, or when the president of the national association decides who referees a match. This cannot be.
“So, we have chosen a list of 20 referees and, with the right organisation and instructors, they will become full professionals appointed by FIFA,” he explains. “We will put them under FIFA protection and they will referee the most important matches in Africa.
“This is performance driven. If they perform well they stay in the list of 20. If not, they are out.”
Details of the time-frame for these changes are not yet clear. CAF will have to agree to them first and, where necessary, amend the federation’s statutes – which can only be done at the annual congress.
Other decisions can be hurried through the executive committee, where a bevy of potential successors to Ahmad wait in the wings for kingmaker Infantino’s blessing...and to do his bidding.