Kotoko and 12 top African clubs hold meeting with Fifa and Caf leadership
12th September 2019
Kumasi Asante Kotoko General Manager Mr. George Amoako was among Club Presidents and representatives of 13 top ranking clubs in Africa who were engaged in a meeting with Caf president Ahmad Ahmad, Fifa boss Gianni Infantino and Fifa General Secretary Fatima Samoura.
They met with the leadership of FIfa and Caf to discuss the challenges and opportunities regarding the development and future of African inter-club competitions.
The key focus areas were how to generate revenue and re-invest it into the game and also how to develop football infrastructure which is important at all levels of football.
Player transfers, solidarity payment, training and compensation, safety and security of players and fans as well as the relevance of digital communications to respond to the needs of young fans were among the issues discussed.
Talks additionally covered the international match calendar and the necessity to reflect a fair balance between clubs and national teams needs given their interconnection.
A consensus was reached between all participants that African club football needs to be radically transformed into a more appealing product. Concretely this means restructuring club competitions with the view to significantly increasing the number of African clubs playing at top level.
This deep reform of African club football will help to bring it to a more global audience.
Speaking at the meeting CAF President Ahmad said: “We all love football and we love our continent. Together we have the possibility to create a bright future for African football and in order to do this we are here to first listen to you and then to work together to elevate African football to the next level.”
His words were echoed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino who said:”In the last two weeks 28 countries, more than half of Africa, have competed in qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2022. We were excited to broadcast these games live for the first time ever to the world via FIFA.com. A global audience of more than 10 million football fans tuned in to see the unique spirit and feeling of African football in action and we want to do even more to take African football global! The potential of African football is immeasurable and if we work hand in hand, everyone around this table playing their part, we can do great things for the development of the game we all love so dearly.”