Menzi Magubane
The impact of Patrice Motsepe as the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is already starting to show.
The former Mamelodi Sundowns president made sure that the 2021 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) carried on as planned in spite of several obstacles which laid in front of it.
When host nation Cameroon fell behind in their preparations due to Covid-19 and contractual issues, they were given another year to get operations in order.
The tournament was postponed to 2022 but Cameroon were still falling behind. Rumors started making the rounds that CAF might be looking for an alternative country to host Africa’s showpiece.
However Motsepe, who took over from Ahmad Ahmed of Madagascar in March last year, stood by Cameroon and today the country is home to Africa’s greats who are battling to be crowned the continent’s champions.
“I want Cameroon to show the world that Africa can host a successful tournament,” declared Motsepe.
At a meeting on Friday, Motsepe also announced that the winners of the tournament will now pocket R75 million, an increase of R750,000. Meanwhile, runners up will walk away with R41.25 million, an increase of R3.750 million.
He also announced that the tournament will go back to its original June-July period for following tournaments. This will without a doubt favour the European teams that are against Afcon being played in the middle of the season. There are players who were not allowed by their teams to join up with their teammates.
But most importantly, African teams, too, will benefit from the new schedule.
At the moment, no African league is in action and with the new schedule every league in the continent and other parts of the world will be closed.
The next Afcon edition will be held in Ivory Coast next year. Bafana Bafana will be hoping to be among the teams that will be taking part in the 2023 edition after missing out on this tournament.
Image source: @CafOnline
