FIFA president Infantino wants African countries to focus on infrastructural development
The state of the football infrastructure in Africa is worrying with out of 10 best football stadiums across Africa, 6 are in South Africa according to the International Football Federation.
To mitigate the problem, the international football governing body together with Confederation of African Football have called for conference to discuss development of football infrastructures in Africa and how best can FIFA help to develop the game since Africa has proved to have all the talents.
Keep Reading
From the 1st to 7th of February, over 200 representatives of African football associations, FIFA members, including the President, Mr. Gianni Infantino, and members of the Executive Committee of CAF under the chairmanship of Mr. Ahmad Ahmad will be at the Mohammed VI Football Complex deliberating on the future of African football more so the quality of football infrastructure on the continent
Despite sport being a proven force which provides employment opportunities for economic development of individuals and a nation at large - the role of sports in economic development is yet to be fully realized and the gains of sport in Africa have largely been limited to the socio-cultural spectacle and its unifying and happiness factors.
More than that the occasional hosting of international competitions has not been met with the needed commercialization of the standard infrastructures hence leaving the continent less benefiting from the game.
The FIFA boss returns to Africa on the back of his commitment to invest more than $1 billion in the African game and found an African league during his last visit to the continent.
Infantino was in Congo to celebrate the 80th birthday of club TP Mazembe, one of Africa’s biggest clubs, in November and participated in a legends game alongside Youri Djorkaeff and CAF president Ahmad Ahmad.
“We want to bring it (Africa) to the highest of heights and show the world the outstanding talent and amazingly gifted players your continent possesses,” he said at the time.
Interestingly, his strategy is to implement a three pillar approach, which starts off with refereeing, infrastructure and competitions.
“I am positive that we will make African football reach the top level where it should be because the quality and potential are in this contient.
The Mohammed VI Football Complex will also host the meeting of the CAF Executive Committee on 2 February 2020 before heading to Laayoune to attend the final phases of the African Futsal Cup of Nations, which will take place from 28 January to 7 February 2020. The African Futsal Cup of Nations is a competition between the eight best national futsal teams of the African continent.
The African Futsal Nations Cup, which until 2015 was called the African Futsal Championship, is a four-year event offering three tickets to the FIFA Futsal World Cup. After a group stage, the top two from each group meet in the semi-finals, with the two finals and determining the podium.
Mauritius will therefore join Group A, replacing the South Africans who withdrew from the competition for political reasons, alongside hosts Morocco, Libya and Equatorial Guinea. Group B includes Egypt, Guinea, Angola and Mozambique.
Morocco awaits the 2020 edition, organized at home, to confirm its 2016 title, obtained after a 3-2 victory in extremis over Egypt in the final.
The Atlas Lions are second in the African Cup of Nations Total Futsal ranking with one win, two finals and two third place finishes, behind Egypt, who have won three consecutive titles.
