Africa-Press – Eswatini. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is considering scrapping the second-tier of inter-club competition.
The latest developments come after the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) announced that the champions of the Ingwenyama Cup will represent the country in the TotalEnergies CAF Confederations Cup. The EFA previously used the EswatiniBank before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, which forced the local football mother body to use the league runners-up for the Confederation Cup.
This was revealed by CAF President Patrice Motsepe during a media briefing in Ivory Coast, ahead of the 2023 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) yesterday. Motsepe said the reason they wanted to scrap the CONFED was to avoid having many inter-club tournaments.Motsepe said the scrapping of the Confederation Cup has been the plan, following the introduction of the African Football League (AFL). “We want to get the Africa Football League and the Champions League commercially viable and make sure clubs make more money out of them. But the other important thing is that we may have to cancel the Confederation Cup, because we now have too many competitions. When I was made president of CAF, the first competition I wanted to cancel was the CHAN,” Motsepe said.
He said the idea was cancelled after smaller member associations highlighted that the CHAN helped them to compete against the big nations and this was the only way they could improve their football. The AFL’s inaugural edition was played late last year, with eight top ranked teams on the continent taking part. With only the Champions League and African Football League, Motsepe said participating teams would get sufficient financial support, enabling them to sustain themselves and invest in academies, fostering the development of more players globally.
The CAF Confederation Cup was established in 2004 from a merger of the CAF Cup and the African Cup Winners’ Cup. The tournament has acted as second tier to the Champions League since its inception.Umkhonto KaShaka Public Relations Officer (PRO) Knowledge Ngwenya expressed his concern about the potential impact of the situation on teams seeking to represent their country in African competitions. “Although I don’t have more information about this, if this is true, it could be disadvantageous for the country, especially since we currently have a semi-professional league. This means we might not be eligible for the Super League, which features the top eight teams from the continent,” he said.
The champion of the 2023/2024 MTN Premier League, subject to conformity with the CAF Club Licensing Regulations and confirmation to meet the financial requirements of such participation, will participate in the CAF Champions League.
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