The South African Football Association (Safa) alongside the entire Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) are backing Patrice Motsepe to be re-elected as CAF President.
This is after Motsepe finally agreed to stand as a candidate at the presidential elections. The elections are scheduled for March 2025. Numerous requests from member association presidents, zonal union presidents, and key stakeholders were received.
Motsepe was elected as president unopposed in 2021 by member associations. This happened in the 43rd CAF General Assembly in Rabat, Morocco. He became the seventh person to occupy the position of CAF President. His four-year term ends in 2025.
Safa President Danny Jordaan, entire Cosafa region
Safa President Danny Jordaan said the entire Cosafa region has agreed to endorse Motsepe. This for a second term as Caf president. Recommendation comes after he brought in development in African football in a short space of time. Jordaan was Speaking to the media at Safa House in Nasrec on Wednesday afternoon.
He was flanked by other Cosafa president Fleetwood Haiya (Malawi) and Peter Simelane (Eswatini). Also Tariq Babitseng (Botswana) and Andrew Kamanga (Zambia).
“I have spoken to all of the presidents in the Cosafa region, some of them cannot be here. But they have sent their messages of support for Patrice Motsepe to be re-elected for a second term. This… in office of the Caf president,” Jordaan said.
“He served a term, and now he’s going for the second term. And I think that from our perspective as Safa, there has been significant improvement in CAF. Not just from a financial point of view. Because very often we only look at the financial aspect, but also from a football point of view.
CAF improved a lot under Motsepe
“We now have a CAF schools’ competition, which starts in Cosafa for both [children of all genders]. And then there is the U20 championships. So, football has shown exponential growth under the leadership of Patrice Motsepe.
“For a second term, and we hope and believe that this Motsepe will even bring more success to African football.”
Said Zambia Association president Kamanga: “In 2025, we hope that we will go with President Motsepe. Simply because he came in at a time when CAF had gone through a lot of challenges. And it wasn’t easy to pick up from where it was, to where we are today.
“Financially, we were quite weak. We had challenges with some marketing contracts. To the point where our deficits were sitting at around $45-million in 2021. And over the years, we’ve significantly reduced that to about $9-million in the last financial year.
“And then there’s the budget which was presented last week in Addis Ababa. It is showing that we will have a positive balance of $11-million.
“The number of coaching courses has increased. Subventions to the membership have increased from $200,000 in 2021. To now $400,000 this year.
Exponential growth of all the footballing activities
“So, you can see that everything is doubling. Even though the bottom line is showing that we are still yet to come out of the negative. But what is comforting is that there’s been a lot of money coming in to support the exponential growth of all the footballing activities.
“So, the time that President Motsepe has been with CAF since 2021, the results are there to show. And we think we need stability and continuation of leadership. For the sake of continuity and believing that we will even do much, much better.
“For that reason, we’ve resolved as members of Cosafa to support his candidature for the next election in March 2025.”
