July 19, (THEWILL) – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has released a Press Statement that covers the details of their Executive Committee (EXCO) meeting which sat on Friday 16 July 2021 in Rabat, Morocco. Under the distinguished chairmanship of CAF President, Dr. Patrice Motsepe, the Exco deliberated on a sundry set of relevant subjects about football on the continent.
For starters, CAF threw its continental weight behind the trending debate around which FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, Arsene Wenger brought up again recently while also calling for the implementation of the recommendations of the final audit of CAF conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
In joining the two-year world cup debate, a proposal formulated during the last FIFA Congress, which will see the men’s and women’s teams clash every two years rather than the standard four-yearly internal, CAF’s EXCO asked that FIFA be informed of their backing.
THEWILL recalls that Saudi Arabia was the first to propose that FIFA considers having the competition staged after every two years and FIFA responded by stating they will investigate the request only for Wenger to bring the subject to trend with his vocal support.
On the subject of the reorganisation of the African football governing body, CAF’s General Secretary, Véron Mosengo-Omba, informed the Committee of the conclusions of the final March 2021 report of the audit launched by PwC.
The EXCO reaffirmed its commitment to good governance by giving its support to the General Secretary to quickly implement the recommendations of PwC while exploring the legal consequences of the findings of this report in its entirety.
The intended goal of seeing to the implementation of these recommendations is to make CAF more attractive to its current and potential partners and sponsors. This is supposed to go hand in hand with the 10-point program advocated by CAF President Motsepe.
On the subject of CAF-organised competitions, the EXCO instructed the Interclub Competitions Committee to accelerate the feasibility study of the African Supranational League project to provide the continental body with relevant details ahead of a final conclusion in that matter.
In fulfilling its responsibilities of organising the fixtures of these competitions, the EXCO announced a first calendar for the interclub competitions of the 2021/2022 season. The kick-off will be September 10, 2021 but the draw for the preliminary rounds will be made on 15 August 2021 at the latest.
They plan to open bids to host the interclub finals in November 2021.
The reports of the inspection missions organised by CAF for the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2021 in Cameroon were considered. The EXCO heard of the good progress the hosts were making of the work regarding the completion of stadiums under construction and other facilities involved.
It also was satisfied with the plan to organise a final inspection visit in mid-August intended to assess the progress of the Olembe Stadium and the possibility of organising the next home match of the Cameroon national team in the September 2021 window.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
