NAIROBI — The
Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Wednesday launched a new lucrative $100 million Super League aimed at
injecting financial muscle into the cash-strapped clubs on the continent.
اضافة اعلان
Twenty-four clubs, yet to be decided, will
take part in the first edition, which has the backing of world governing body
FIFA and will be played between August 2023 and May 2024.
CAF president
Patrice Motsepe, who announced
the new competition, did not say if it would replace CAF’s existing Champions
League and the second-tier Confederation Cup.
“The African Super League is a very important
initiative. One of the major problems in Africa is finance,” said Motsepe at
the launch held in the northern Tanzania town of Arusha.
“The Africa Super League is one of the most
exciting developments in the history of African football and the objective in
terms of what we are trying to achieve is very clear, to make sure African club
football is world-class and competes with the best in the world.
“Our intention is to use the $100 million as
prize money and to do that every year in the African Super League, so that the
club which wins gets $11.5 million,” he added.
Hamdi Meddeb, the chairman of four-time
Champions League winners Esperance Tunis, claimed before the launch that sides
would be better not to play in the current top-tier competition due to costs.
“Africa is a huge continent and sometimes we
have to charter flights at a cost of more than $100,000 each,” Meddeb said.
“When we won the
Champions League (in 2018
and 2019), more than half the prize money was spent on bonuses and allowances for
the squad and the technical staff. Those are contractual obligations.”
Motsepe said CAF will use some of the 50
million dollars from the Super League to make football attractive and ensure
the best players remain in Africa and improve the quality of the sport on the
continent which has lagged behind other parts of the world.
“Each of the 24 clubs that will take part in the initial
tournament will receive an annual contribution of three-and-half million
dollars to buy players, pay for transport and player transfers,” Motsepe said.
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