A few days after being elected unopposed as President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice Motsepe on Tuesday outlined his plans to advance the sport in the continent.
Motsepe said African football must aspire for one of its national teams to win the World Cup in the near future, “In the next World Cup and also in the following ones, the African teams must be able to play for victory, and, it is in our program, it is part of our plan that an African team can win the Cup, and we all need to work for that.”
No African team has gone beyond the quarter-finals of the World Cup, and only Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) have advanced that far.
Motsepe is upbeat about the continent’s chances to finally produce a World Cup winner. He also promised to quit after his four-year term if CAF “does not make real progress” under his leadership.
“We must stop being excessively pessimistic and negative (about the World Cup), there is no continent that has succeeded by dwelling on its failures,” he said. “I am confident African football will succeed, become self-sufficient, and the best in the world,”
As President of CAF, Patrice Motsepe automatically became Vice-President of FIFA and a member of the FIFA Council.
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Motsepe further announced the Africa Cup of Nations will continue to be held every two years, despite calls from FIFA that it be changed to four years, as ‘CAF badly needed the revenue’.
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.”
Story compiled with assistance from wire reports
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