African Football League, explained: $4m prize, travel chaos – and Infantino

On Oct 25, 2023

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has spent the last few years fighting to stop the creation of a European Super League. However, last week, he attended the opening game of the African Football League (AFL), which is seen as a threat to other competitions on the continent.

The AFL was created by FIFA with the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The aim is for it to eventually become the region’s premier competition, although CAF president Patrice Motsepe says it is not a replacement for the CAF Champions League or the Confederation Cup (the equivalent of the Europa League).

There were 60,000 fans at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Tanzania on Friday to watch Tanzanian side Simba SC draw 2-2 with Egyptian champions and Champions League holders Al Ahly in the competition’s opening game. Before the match, Motsepe unveiled the trophy at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dar es Salaam alongside FIFA’s chief of global football development and former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

Infantino has grand plans for the AFL but it has not been without controversy, as The Athletic explains…

Motsepe to the right of the trophy, with Wenger to his left (Ericky Boniphace/AFP via Getty Images)

Who came up with the idea for the AFL?

The origins of the AFL can be traced to November 2019 when Infantino travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to celebrate the 80th birthday of Tout Puissant Mazembe, one of the biggest and most successful clubs in Africa.

During his visit, Infantino gave a speech outlining his long-term plans for African football. “We want to bring it to the highest of heights and show the world the outstanding talent and amazingly gifted players your continent possesses,” said the FIFA president.

“To do this, we want to implement a three-pillar approach: refereeing, infrastructure and competitions in close cooperation with CAF, all of its 54 member associations and other stakeholders. I am positive that we will make African football reach the top level where it should be, because the quality and potential are definitely here.

“We have to take the 20 best African clubs and put them in an African league. Such a league could make at least $200million (£164m at today’s rates) in revenue, which would put it among the top 10 in the world.”

At the time, Ahmad Ahmad was the CAF president. He was replaced permanently in March 2021 by Motsepe. A few months after the South African businessman’s appointment, plans for the African Super League — which it was initially called — were approved at an executive board meeting in Morocco.

What was the original plan for the tournament?

In August 2022, Motsepe outlined CAF’s plans. The competition would involve 24 teams from 16 countries spread across Africa (it was never clarified how teams would qualify or be selected). The teams would be split into three regional groups — north, central west and south east — with each group comprising eight clubs that would play each other home and away. There would be 197 matches overall and it was due to launch in August 2023 and finish the following May.

The total prize pot on offer was $100million, with the winners set to receive $11.6m — big sums compared to those typically offered on the continent. For example, Senegal only received $5m for winning the Africa Cup of Nations in 2022, and Al Ahly earned $4m for lifting the Champions League trophy earlier this year. CAF pledged all 54 member associations would receive $1m per year to put towards youth development programmes and upgrading infrastructure.

Infantino at the opening match of the AFL last week (Ericky Boniphace/AFP via Getty Images)

What happened next?

Earlier this year, the competition’s name was changed to the African Football League. However, there was no update on the status of the competition.

In July, CAF held a general assembly in the Ivory Coast where Infantino announced the AFL would take place between October and November, but in a different format from what was originally proposed.

Infantino said only eight clubs would take part in this year’s AFL. It is a knockout tournament and all the matches, including the final in November, will be played across two legs, with the away goals rule in effect. However, there are plans to fully launch it with 24 teams next season.

Al Ahly, TP Mazembe, Tunisia’s Esperance de Tunis and Moroccan champions Wydad Casablanca entered this year’s competition along with Nigeria’s Enyimba, Atletico Petroleos de Luanda from Angola, Tanzania’s Simba and Mamelodi Sundowns, who have won the South African league six times in a row.

Sundowns are owned by Motsepe. His son, Tlhopie, became the chairman after Motsepe stepped down to take the CAF presidency.

The prize money has been reduced and the winners are now set to receive $4m while the runners-up take $2.5m. The losing semi-finalists will take $1.7million each and the quarter-finalists $900,000.

Where is it being broadcast?

A disagreement between CAF and beIN Sports has undercut many of Infantino’s claims about this being the biggest and best tournament in Africa. In September, CAF accused beIN of owing the federation money. The broadcaster says it has been trying to engage with CAF over rebates for the COVID-19-related pause of football on the continent. But on the day the tournament started, beIN announced it would be showing matches in 24 countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

Supersport — a South Africa-based sports broadcaster popular in sub-Saharan Africa — has not appeared particularly interested in picking up the new tournament, preferring to focus on the African and European Champions League.

Some games are free to watch via YouTube with French and English commentary.

A woman selling mementoes at the AFL opener (Ericky Boniphace/AFP via Getty Images)

Are there any sponsors?

When the reduced-format AFL was announced in Cairo, there were no sponsors named. A week before the competition started, CAF announced Visit Saudi as its main sponsor. The other big sponsor is Visit Rwanda, whose name will appear on all clubs’ shirts apart from TP Mazembe, who refused due to the tense geopolitical situation between Rwanda and DR Congo.

How is it going so far?

There have been some travel issues.

Enyimba’s media manager David Orji said on Tuesday that the team had been unable to leave Morocco after their 1-0 defeat to Wydad. He said they were forced to return to their hotel after spending six hours and 30 minutes in the aircraft. The second leg between the two sides has been postponed by 24 hours and will now take place on Thursday.

The second-leg quarter-final between Esperance and TP Mazembe was also pushed back a day due to a delayed flight.

Is it any different to the CAF Champions League?

The Champions League takes place every season. For the 2022-23 edition, 58 teams from 46 different member associations took part in the qualifying rounds and 16 teams were involved in the group stages. The 12 highest-ranked member associations in CAF’s five-year ranking system are allowed to enter two teams.

Football fans, players and coaches are in broad agreement that the current format of the CAF Champions League is imperfect, with travel costs and other logistical issues causing great strain on clubs who go on unexpected runs deep into the tournament.

Simba’s Saidi Ntibazonkiza and Al Ahly’s Yasser Ibrahim in the AFL inaugural match (Ericky Boniphace/AFP via Getty Images)

The biggest difference between the CAF Champions League and the AFL, when it fully launches next year, will be the number of teams involved.

Motsepe has insisted the CAF Champions League and Confederations Cup are safe, but he gave a warning before the AFL’s opening match.

“If anything it will improve the quality of our competitions, and we also have to get to a point where we restructure some of our tournaments to ensure they live up to our expectations,” Motsepe said.

There is some appetite for reformatting the CAF Champions League. However, the AFL in its current incarnation does not quite have enough top-level star power to divert eyeballs from the Champions League, nor does it offer any resolutions for less-monied clubs in Africa.

Infantino seems particularly interested in this…

The FIFA president has been a notable presence in African football in recent years. He took a prominent role in the celebrations at the 2021 AFCON final and has been very close to Motsepe, one of his strongest allies in FIFA’s political sphere. However, neither man was at the AFL quarter-final draw.

The sponsorship links make the AFL look more like a FIFA/Infantino-backed tournament than a CAF-backed one. Infantino has described it as a “world first” and a “game-changer”. It is seen as a project he is using to secure his legacy, but there’s little evidence so far that the tournament will improve things for the top five per cent of clubs in the continent, let alone the 95 per cent below them.

GO DEEPER

‘It’s the most undervalued market in world football’ – the failure to scout African talent

(Top photo: The opening ceremony of the AFL; by Ericky BoniphaceAFP via Getty Images)

Crédit: Lien source