The annual gathering of African football’s top decision-makers took place on Tuesday (Oct. 22) in Addis Ababa.
The 46th CAF general assembly was notably attended by the head FIFA Gianni Infantino.
CAF’s 2022-2023 audited Financial Report and 2024-2025 budget were released.
Patrice Motsepe who was elected at the helm of CAF in 2021 hailed the body’s reduction in losses.
Officially, the losses were reduced to $ 9.2 million from $ 28.9 million.
“We had to immediately stop the hemorrhaging stopped the huge amount of financial problems and difficulties and the financial position of CAF was in a very, very dire condition,” Motsepe revealed.
“But also, we had to introduce a governance and ethics and make sure that there’s transparency and auditing practices that are world class good progress has been made and we spent more than $50 million over the last year just on competition. The number is more like 100 million if you take into account, we had to pay $50 million to Lagardere Sports for an old problem that we have inherited that took place many, many years ago.”
Tghe settling of the legal battle with Lagardere Sports comes years after CAF suddenly cancelled its decade-long, US$1 billion contract with the sports marketing agency.
Net profit in next financial year
Motsepe underlined the progress being made with African football and underlined his hopes that one day soon an African nation will lift football’s most coveted prize – the World Cup.
Until that time, said Motsepe, African Nations will continue to struggle to be taken seriously on the worlds stage.
CAF is projected a net profit of $11.7 million – for the first time in years.
The body says, this financial health will enable it to deliver on its mandate of developing football in Africa.
CAF notably relies on revenues it generates from competition, commercial revenues and FIFA assistance among other sources of income.
Infantino spoke of the great progress being made by African footballing nations on the worlds stage and CAF’s and FIFA’s ongoing campaign against racism in football.