CAF Hurdles in Bringing Pride to African Football By Muctaru Wurie
In a continent full of passionate football lovers, the sport has undoubtedly brought joy and hope to millions. The world’s most popular sport has successfully merged tribal and national allegiances from Dakar to Maputo. The whole of Africa was behind Ghana last year as they shocked the world in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
But as the enthusiasm for football in Africa flies high, many have recently questioned the role of the Confed- eration of African Football (CAF). CAF represents national football associations, runs continental, national and club competitions; and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions. Al- though just three years younger than Europe’s UEFA, CAF still has a long way to go in improving the quality of the national and local competitions. CAF was founded on 8 February 1957 in Khartoum, Sudan by the Egyptian, Ethiopian, South African and Sudanese Football Federations.
Despite the criticisms, CAF can boast of hosting tournaments on a regular basis. The biennial Africa Cup of Nations, which is the continent’s premier football competition; the CAF Champions League, the Confederation Cup and the CECAFA Cup are some of the most popular tournaments run by CAF.
Another success also is the ability of CAF to successfully lobby for five slots out of the 32 available since the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. This increased to six at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, however, the number of places returns to five for the 2014 World Cup.
Despite these successes, CAF, headed by Cameroonian-born Issa Hayatou has come under criticism for its politics. Most recently, the body was the subject of widespread controversy and criticism following a decision to ban Togo for two African Cup of Nations editions, after the West African nation backed out of the Angola 2010 in the wake of a gunfire attack on the team’s bus that claimed lives.
The size of African membership, currently 53, makes CAF the largest voting block during FIFA elections. Any candidate wishing to win the presidency needs to secure the African vote. But this has not reflected in concrete positive changes for African football, critics of Hayatou, who has headed CAF since 1988, say he has failed to come with strong and effective leadership to effect the necessary changes.
Recently, another of CAF’s shortcoming was highlighted by the embarrassing African Player of the Year awards. At the 2010 award-giving night, none of the three contenders bothered to show up and the ceremony itself was in shambles, ending up more like a music festival than an awards night. Guests struggled to stay awake as CAF officials and sponsors Globacom hogged the limelight from the people who matter most in the sport – the players.
Commercially, the Nations Cup continues to be a burden on countries that take part. The winner of the Angola 2010, Egypt, walked away with an insignificant US$500,000 and all the participating countries that spent mil- lions of dollars to qualify received tiny or no commercial benefit. Meanwhile, CAF, sports agency SportFive and broadcast partner, LC2, reaped millions of dollars. As a result smaller countries like Sierra Leone always
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