An appellation that brings back contrasting memories. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) officially launched this Wednesday, August 10 in Arusha, Tanzania, its “Super League”a competition that will bring together 24 clubs from 16 countries on the continent, in order to gain in attractiveness.
The first edition should be held from August 2023 to May 2024 and will inject around 100 million euros into the clubs involved. “The African Super League is a very important initiative. One of the main issues in Africa is funding. Our aim is for African club football to be world class and compete with the best in the world”said CAF President Patrice Motsepe.
“The Super League is an exciting and unique project. We are happy to help and share all the experience we have accumulated”, said FIFA President Gianni Infantino, present at the launch. FIFA’s support for this new competition could come as a surprise, the institution having shown itself hostile in 2021 to the formation of a “European Super League”.
A NEW TOURNAMENT. A NEW ERA.
We present to you the very first Super Africa League!#AfricaSuperLeague pic.twitter.com/zfxfDzxUsH
— TotalEnergies CAFCL – TotalEnergies CAFCC(@CAFCLCC_fr) August 10, 2022
Indeed, in April 2021, when twelve European clubs announced the creation of a closed Super League, similar to the NBA in the United States, FIFA announced that any club or player playing there would be banned from all competitions organized by the Finternational federations, precipitating the failure of the project. But unlike the project carried by Florentino Pérez, this African Super League will be neither private nor closed.
The profits generated by this Super League must be used to make African football more attractive, to ensure that players stay in Africa and to improve the quality of infrastructure of clubs on the continent, said Motsepe. “Each of the 24 clubs that will participate in the initial tournament will receive an annual contribution of three and a half million dollars to buy players and pay for transport”said the president of CAF.
Participants will be selected based on their results in the African Champions League and the CAF Cup, the two annual CAF competitions, which it is unclear whether will be retained. This project is not unanimous. He was notably criticized by the owner of South African club Cape Town City FC, John Comitis, who called him “super stupid idea“, which would result in “killing african club football” and to “say goodbye to national leagues“.