IN QUOTES| Motsepe's Caf presidency bid endorsed by Nigeria, Botswana and Sierra Leone

10 November 2020 - 13:30 By cebelihle bhengu
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Patrice Motsepe has launched a bid for the Confederation of African Football (Caf) presidency.
Patrice Motsepe has launched a bid for the Confederation of African Football (Caf) presidency.
Image: ROBERT TSHABALALA

SA Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan on Monday revealed that Mamelodi Sundowns owner Patrice Motsepe's bid to run for the Caf presidency received support from national football associations in Nigeria, Botswana and Sierra Leone.

Jordaan was briefing the media together with sports minister Nathi Mthethwa. Jordaan said the closing date for the submission of nominations is November 12.

He said the association had made its submissions in Cairo, Egypt. Among the requirements for the position is that the candidate must be endorsed by the national association and that each country can only have one candidate.

Here are five quotes from the briefing:

Motsepe is the best candidate 

“His football and business success is well recorded in our country, the continent and throughout the world. In 2017, Forbes magazine commemorated its centenary celebration and honoured Dr Motsepe as one of the 100 greatest business minds in the world, alongside other global businessmen like Jeff Bezos.”

Impact of Covid-19 on sport 

“Football is a global sport and one of the things that happened as a result of Covid-19 is the three major challenges in health, the economy and football. We see that we have to repackage competitions.  We find that some of the biggest investors on the African continent are countries with the biggest economies.

"They invest in infrastructure projects on the continent and yet the profit you generate, where do you invest it? In the English premier league, Uefa and not in Caf.”

Motsepe against other candidates 

“We believe the strength of our candidate is sufficient for him to have a formidable chance to win this election Côte d'Ivoire has a candidate. As far as we can see, there are three candidates.”

Caf presidency a unique opportunity 

“We must not deal with personalities, but principles. We had said, as a matter of principle, in the interest of the African continent and of our country, when will SA ever have even the remotest chance to have the president of Caf, who automatically becomes the deputy president of Fifa? If there is that possibility, let us discuss it at Safa, and the overwhelming majority at Safa said it's not about us, it's about the country.”

Motsepe may have to step down from Sundowns 

“The Safa constitution is specific. It says no club owner can be the president of Safa. Caf does not have that provision from a constitutional point of view, but from a governance point of view he would have to step down. That is an issue he understands and those are issues on which we will further engage.” 

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