The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will consider a proposal to open up its main competition – The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) – to other continents in order to increase revenue and attract new partners.
This was recommended by CAF’s Marketing and TV team on Wednesday at the two-day African Football Symposium in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
The team said it had agreed on the increasing of the AFCON teams “from 16 to 24 and to have from 20 to 21 African teams in addition to 3 or 4 invitees from other continents”.
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| Confederation of African Football (CAF) To Consider Opening Up AFCON To Non-African Teams To Boost Revenue |
They also recommended “the possibility to host the AFCON Final Tournament by countries outside the African continent like China, USA, or Qatar to host the AFCON 2023 since all the required infrastructure will be already implemented for the FIFA WC 2022,” it added.
The CAF Marketing and TV team said these recommendations will optimize revenues and attract new partners including sponsors.
Proposal at #CAFSymposium for 20-21 African teams at AFCON & 3-4 foreign teams. Just imagine one of the invitee foreign team winning Afcon.🤔 pic.twitter.com/XHtxVyQm9a— Juliet Bawuah (@julietbawuah) July 19, 2017
These recommendations will have to be ratified by the CAF executive committee during CAF’s General Assembly that will kick off on July 20 to 21.
On Tuesday, recommendations were also made on the timing and expansion of the AFCON.
The executive committee will have to decide whether to expand the teams to 24 teams and move the hosting dates to June and July.
If the dates are moved, it will end the years long argument over the timing by European clubs who lose African players during the competition in January and February.
In attendance at the symposium in Rabat are each of the 55 Member Associations affiliated to CAF including coaches and former footballers. African News
