New era dawns for African clubs
Confederation of AfricaN Football (CAF) yesterday launched Africa Club Associations (ACA) as a platform for the continent’s top football clubs, including Malawi’s FCB Nyasa Bullets to build capacity and give clubs a voice.
In his address to the club representatives in Cairo, Egypt, CAF president Patrice Motsepe said the ground-breaking association was formed to safeguard, strength and develop African clubs’ interests in all international football affairs and decision-making.
He said in a live stream of the launch of the ACA monitored on CAF channel: “You can’t develop African football if you don’t promote African clubs and don’t make them commercially viable. That is why the ACA is very important.
“The challenges from the CAF zones are not the same. The challenges in the clubs in the West may not be the same in the South or North. That’s why we need this association because the board members who are the clubs will be able to advance the interests of their zones.”
Motsepe said, through the ACA, he wants to protect and promote the interest of African football clubs to ensure that they are globally competitive and profitable.
He said CAF through the ACA, will among other things, help to facilitate partnerships with sponsors, the private sector and governments to build stadiums that comply with CAF and Fifa standards in each of the 54 member associations.
Bullets chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda, who represented the club at the launch, said the formation of ACA was long overdue.
He said: “Before ACA, clubs had no representation. It’s only member associations that were heard through CAF general assembly. This time, clubs have a say.”
Bullets, as the only Malawian side in ACA, have been invited to join ACA membership following their participation in the Champions League.
Soccer analyst Charles Nyirenda has described ACA as a milestone in club football as it is Africa’s version of European Club Association formed in 2008 and is recognised by both Uefa and Fifa.
The launch of the association preceded the ACA’s first annual general meeting which was expected to elect office-bearers as we went to press.
The assembly was also expected to discuss a proposals for ACA to introduce another club competition to involve all member clubs to kick off in 2024.
