CAF president Patrice Motsepe has labelled the 2024 African Nations Championship (Chan) as the most successful edition in the history of the competition.
The competition was co-hosted for the first time in its history, with the East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda staging the event.
“I want to thank the presidents and the people of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda for staging what has been the most successful edition of Chan in the history of the competition,” Motsepe said on Saturday during a press conference at the Villa Rosa Kempinski hotel in Nairobi.
“I saw some of the fan parks for people who could not watch matches at the stadium and what has been absolutely clear is that the quality of African football has been improving and becoming world-class,” the South African added.
Referring to a conversation he had with FKF president Hussein Mohammed, Motsepe expressed pleasant wonder at Chan 2024 matches attracting crowds of 140,000 people at fan zones and viewership of 40 million.
The press conference came after CAF had held its executive committee meeting at the same venue ahead of the Chan 2024 final, which will be contested between first-time finalists Madagascar and two-time Chan champions Morocco at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, at 6 pm on Saturday.
Chan 2024 was the eighth edition of the competition, which was first played in 2009 in Cote d’Ivoire.
Motsepe was accompanied to the press conference by CAF’s fourth vice president, Bestine Kazadi Kitabala (DR Congo), CAF’s fifth vice president Feizal Sidat (Mozambique), CAF secretary general Mosengo-Omba Veron (DR Congo), and CAF’s Head of TV Luxolo September (South Africa).
The quintet were later joined by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who arrived in the country on Friday for his first-ever visit to Kenya.
Infantino marked his entrance by making trademarks statements that ease his inclusion into ethnic, national, racial, and religious groups.
“It is my pleasure to be in my country, Kenya, and my continent, Africa, for the final of Chan 2024,” Infantino said.
“We are all CAF. We are all Fifa. We are all football. We are all united,” he added.
Infantino also congratulated CAF and the Chan 2024 co-hosts for hosting “excellent tournament” and hyped President William Ruto as “a great football fan” ahead of their scheduled meeting later in the day.
Infantino’s entry was preceded by Motsepe sharing an update on how hosting Chan has made Kenyan football lucrative.
“The president of the Football Kenya Federation recently told me that sincr Chan started there has been an abnormal interest by the private sector to sponsor Kenyan football,” Motsepe said.
Motsepe also highlighted engagements CAF is having with the private sector to unlock more funds and resources to support the growth of African football.
“We have been having engagements with the private sector over a USD1 billion (Sh 130 billion) spread across eight years that is meant to ensure an increase in the financial resources to support African football,” Motsepe said.
Already, as Motsepe further revealed, CAF has made significant effort to fund African football, from increasing the prize money for its competitions and allocating more funds in disbursements to clubs and national teams.
“This year’s CAF club competitions have attracted a record number of clubs and each is going to receive USD100 000 (Sh13 million) to assist with planning and logistics in the preliminary stages of the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederations Cup,” Motsepe said.
Previously, CAF disbursed funds to clubs appearing in the preliminary stages of CAF club competitions. “This season we will disburse upwards of a total of USD8 million (Sh1.04 billion) to clubs competing in preliminary stages of CAF club competitions,” Motsepe added.
Kenyan clubs, 2024-25 FKF Premier League champions Kenya Police FC and 2025 FKF Cup winners Nairobi United, will be one the clubs that will benefit from those grants. Kenya Police will compete in the CAF Champions League while Nairobi United has entered for the CAF Confederation Cup.
On disbursements to federations, Motsepe stated that CAF is currently funding each member association to the tune of more USD500 000 (Sh65 million) annually. “When I took over the amount CAF disbursed to member associations was USD200 000 (Sh26 million). We plan to increase that to USD1 million (Sh130 million),” Motsepe said.
Motsepe continued to paint a bright picture for the future of club and national teams competitions, announcing plans to increase the number of competitions that CAF organises.
“UEFA organises more competitions than us,” he said, suggesting the direction that CAF is facing to emulate best practices.
“At the CAF executive meeting, we held discussions about expanding the Women’s African Cup of Nations and introducing youth tournaments for women at the U17, U20, and U23 level,” Motsepe said.
At the moment, the Women’s African Cup of Nations is a competition for 12 teams. It is the only national team competition for women’s football that CAF organises and Motsepe stated that there are no immediate plans to organise a Chan version for women yet.
“We have to stabilise the Women’s African Cup of Nations first before introducing a Chan for women,” Motsepe said.
As CAF continues working on stabilising Wafcon, the African Cup of Nations, its premier event, is thriving and attracting great interest from countries wishing to host it.
“We have opened bidding for hosting of the 2029, 2031, 2033, and 2035 African Cup of Nations and we have received a record number of bids,” Motsepe said.
The competition is watched in 175 countries and viewed by 1 billion people. The next two editions of the tournament will be hosted by Morocco (Afcon 2025) and the trio of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda (Afcon 2027).
As Afcon thrives, Motsepe reflected on the behind-the-scenes battles to save Chan. “Some people wanted Chan cancelled because it is not making any money. However, we continue to see value in Chan in the way it is uplifting the national teams of countries that do not have enough resources,” he said.
Still, Motsepe bemoaned government policies that have limit the ability of African to travel freely. “Some countries have strict visa laws and that at times limits our ability to move around when hosting tournaments. We try our best to have these rules relaxed but the countries we engage insist on protecting their sovereignty,” Motsepe said.
He lauded Kenya’s visa-free policy for Africans, which has made it easy for Africans from the rest of the continent to travel to the country. He expressed hope of convincing Tanzania and Uganda to relax their visa policies for persons visiting their country during Afcon 2027.
