FIFA President Promises to Improve African Football

DBasia.news –  FIFA President Gianni Infantino has proposed that the African Cup be held every four years, not every two years. He also wants to create a pan-African Super League with 20 permanent member clubs.

The FIFA president spoke at a seminar in Rabat, Morocco about the development of African football. He complained that football in the region did not develop as expected and that he wanted to project African football to the top of the world.

Infantino’s statement came less than a month after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided to move next year’s African Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon from June-July back to its original schedule in January. This sparked criticism from the club which had to release players in mid-season.

“We have been talking about the development of African football for years,” Infantino said.” Pele once said that the African team will win the FIFA World Cup, but this has not yet happened and it seems like we are not making progress. Today must be the day we turn the page.”

He said the African Cup produced twenty times less profit than the European Cup. He questioned the positive side of the African Cup from the commercial side every two years.

Infantino then provided detailed proposals for the pan-African league which he said had been developed together with the CAF.

“I want to make a real pan-African league that will feature 20-24 clubs with a maximum of maybe two clubs per country that will still play in their national league, but that will play throughout the year so that we can really crown African club champions,” he said.

Infantino also launched a plan to invest 1 billion US dollars to build at least one top stadium in each of the 54 African member associations of FIFA. Where good stadiums already exist, investments will be used on other infrastructure.