The Confederation of African Football (Caf) is synonymous with chaos. I’m now convinced that without chaos this organisation, which is supposed to be on top of its game organising football in our continent, would not exist.
The chaos occurs no matter who the Caf leader is at any particular time. The organisation’s soul is always the subject of manipulation, especially by those with deep pockets and knowledge of how to tilt certain decisions in their favour.
The country that appears to be in control of this organisation at the moment is Morocco. Everything this North African country wants, Caf will deliver on a silver platter, no make that a golden platter.
There’s no way one can’t reach that conclusion after Caf had dilly dallied for weeks before announcing on Monday that Morocco will, for a second year in a row, be the hosts of Africa’s most prestigious interclub competition, the Caf Champions League.
This happened despite Egypt’s appeals for Caf not to award it to a country which is likely to have a club appear in it.
As things stands, Wydad Athletic, a Moroccan club, and Al Ahly of Egypt, are likely to contest the Champions League final after their convincing wins in the first leg of the competition’s semifinals last weekend.
Caf, who have delayed making this decision from the time they concluded the competition’s group’s draw in February, broke their silence on Monday, taking their chaotic ways to another level when they awarded Morocco the right to host the final. Egypt are now threatening to challenge the Caf decision. I hope they do more than that: boycott it until a neutral venue is announced.
Obviously Caf doesn’t see the need to give clubs and their supporters enough time to plan their journeys to wherever they’ll be playing an important fixture — one as big as a continental final.
But why is a critical decision like this made at the last minute? you may to ask. Caf counterparts in Europe, for example, have not only decided on the dates of Uefa Champions League and Europa finals in 2023 but the venues, Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Turkey and Puskas Arena Park in Hungary, have been confirmed.
Why Caf can’t do the same with their competitions is anyone’s guess. As I was writing this (May 11) Caf were breaking the news on their official website (cafonline.com) that Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo will host the final of its second tier interclub competition, the Caf Confederation Cup, next Friday, May 20.
Orlando Pirates and TP Mazembe of DRC, the teams that are likely to contest that final judging by the favourable results they got in the first leg of the competition’s semifinals at the weekend, know now that they’ll have to go Nigeria to play that final (if they defend their leads of course).
Obviously Caf doesn’t see the need to give clubs and their supporters enough time to plan their journeys to wherever they’ll be playing an important fixture — one as big as a continental final. This happens on a continent where air travel is cumbersome and costly at the best of times.
It is, however, the decision to award Morocco the right to host the Champions League final that has irked many people in the continent. Justifying their decision, Caf said other than Morocco, they had also received a request from Senegal to host the final.
After the Senegalese FA decided to withdraw their bid, Caf said they had no option but to give the Moroccans another chance. This decision was reported to have not gone down well with some of the Caf executives, including its president Patrice Motsepe.
“Caf is therefore pleased to award the hosting of the Caf Champions League 2022 final to Morocco. The date of the final is May 30,” Caf said in their statement on Monday.
You’ve got to ask why Caf are making such critical decisions at the last minute. Caf’s reason for giving Morocco the final would have been accepted had they made it before this campaign’s competition began.
These decisions show a disregard by Caf for the most important people in the game, the fans.
How, given the economic situation on the continent, can you plan to go to Nigeria from SA or the DRC at the last minute if you’re an ordinary fan of Pirates or Mazembe? Had these fans known of the venue months in advance should their teams qualify for the final, they would have surely made some tentative plans.
But with Caf you get the sense that fans are the last thing they care about.
Now you take a Caf Confed Cup final to Nigeria and you think local people will be interested. No they won’t. Caf will try to fool everyone by giving free tickets to the locals, hoping they’ll come and watch two teams they know nothing about.
Knowing how their decision to give the Champions League final to Morocco would be viewed, Caf sought to bring to our attention that they have plans to change how they do things.
You would have thought those plans would involve Caf making their decisions earlier and faster.
Instead, Caf are looking to go back to where we were before they took the decision three years ago to play these finals at a neutral venue and in one leg instead of two.
“There are discussions under way within Caf to revert to the old two-legged home and away final to determine the winner of the Champions League, rather than the one-leg final,” Caf concluded in their statement on Monday.
Instead of moving with the times, planning and deciding on the hosts of these events years before, Caf tell us they’re discussing how they can go back to the old ways.
That’s the sort of the organisation that we have entrusted with organising football on our continent. No wonder there’s so much chaos in Caf member associations, including the SA Football Association, where candidates challenging the current president are barred from campaigning freely before an election.
So if you thought Caf were moving with times and will, for instance, follow Europe in scrapping of the away goal rule in their competitions, you may as well as forget it. Here we have an organisation that doesn’t even know how to handle their own events, let alone make sure they’re attended by people who have any sort of interest in them.
The more things change on the global stage, expect them to stay the same or even get worse in Africa. That’s what Caf stands for. Chaos.
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