FIFA Boss Gianni Infantino’s African Super League


FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has big plans for African soccer.

He wants to create an “Africa League” with twenty teams from across the continent, and make it one of the ten biggest leagues in the world.

In a recent visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, he claimed the new competition could generate “at least $200 million in revenue.”

From George Weah to Mohamed Salah, Africa has produced some of the best soccer players in the world, but its club soccer is lagging behind other continents. It is the only continent apart from Oceania to not have a league ranked higher than band 6 by the English FA, and its leagues don’t do well on other rankings either
FIFA Boss Gianni Infantino’s African Super League Plan And The Many Problems

Al Ahly v Zamalek - Egypt Premier League
Abdallah El of Al Ahli scores a goal against

FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has big plans for African soccer.

He wants to create an “Africa League” with twenty teams from across the continent, and make it one of the ten biggest leagues in the world.

In a recent visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, he claimed the new competition could generate “at least $200 million in revenue.”

From George Weah to Mohamed Salah, Africa has produced some of the best soccer players in the world, but its club soccer is lagging behind other continents. It is the only continent apart from Oceania to not have a league ranked higher than band 6 by the English FA, and its leagues don’t do well on other rankings either.


The creation of a single league could change that, creating a large enough entity to compete with other leagues around the world and drive investment into African soccer.

Soccer isn’t the only sport to see the potential of a pan-African tournament. The NBA and basketball’s governing body are launching the Basketball Africa League featuring 12 teams from Cairo to Luanda. It was supposed to start in 2020 but its launch was postponed due to COVID-19.

A pan-African league could help unlock African club soccer’s potential, but turning the idea into reality is anything but straightforward.

African soccer columnist for goal.com, Solace Chukwu told me the idea “smacks of a misunderstanding of where African football is at the moment,” and that the league will likely run into the same problems like travel, bureaucracy and lack of affordability for fans that the current competitions face.

The first issue any new league needs to sort out would be which clubs should take part in the league. Clubs would have to represent every corner of Africa, but there is already a massive disparity between North Africa and the rest of the continent.

The 2020 CAF Champions League final was played between two clubs from the same city. Egypt’s Al Ahly beat local rivals Zamalek 2-1 to be crowned Africa’s top side for the ninth time. Zamalek have been champions of Africa five times themselves, and the last four Champions League finals have been played between clubs from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

The only countries south of the Sahara that have been represented in the final in the past decade are South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Even if the Africa league was limited to one team per country, more than half the continent’s countries would miss out, but realistically, the stronger nations would have more teams making it even less representative of the continent as a whole, potentially locking large areas out from the tournament’s supposed riches.

Morocco's Wydad Casablanca and Democratic Republic of Congo's TP Mezembe
Wydad Casablanca from Morocco and TP Mezembe from[+]AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Some countries don’t have an obvious candidate to join the league, so choosing the 20 teams that would compete would likely cause accusations of favoritism and other problems. The local leagues left behind would be severely damaged with the aspirations of clubs and their fans shattered. Victor Zoff from Africa Insider goes as far to call the consequences on local soccer “devastating” and says it would benefit advertisers rather than fans. Many of the bigger clubs in Africa already have strong local support, but what’s to make soccer fans in Kenya or Nigeria want to watch Kaiser Chiefs or Wydad Casablanca over Chelsea or Arsenal?

The cost and difficulties of travel have been a challenge for African soccer. Even in the recent international break, Gabon had to sleep at the airport ahead of their African Cup of Nations qualifier against The Gambia. Algerian journalist Maher Mezahi told me some CAF Champions League preliminary rounds can cost up to $50,000 in airfare alone. This, along with the comparatively small prize pot, has made the CAF Champions League unprofitable even for the top clubs.

The clubs involved in the Africa League would likely be in easier to reach locations than some of the teams involved in Champions League preliminary matches. But with teams regularly flying across the continent from Johannesburg to Algiers to play league matches, the travel costs alone of a 20-team league could run into the tens of millions of dollars. And that’s before the issues of trying to work out a match schedule. The possibility of having a host nation could make scheduling easier, but comes with its own problems.

Those costs could be covered by the supposed $200 million in revenue the league would bring in. But Mehazi says many African journalists have “scoffed at that number” and that there’s no supporting evidence to suggest of a figure like that. For the league to work, it would also have to maintain fans’ interest over a longer period of time and create a reliable product.

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.goal.com/en/news/european-super-league-is-an-african-version-realistic/kj74azjayiry1qrpykw3fms9s&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjMgeiCj6rxAhUpA2MBHS3ECwwQFjAAegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw2p6gHW0i6yb5hV5Fl3lYjt

Them dey always use Africa do experiment..

Ever8090:
Them dey always use Africa do experiment..

Africa na guinea pig for onyinbo experiment.

You go fear Super League. Lol
Players that shine there will be going to Greece & Romania for trials.

BuyAndSellStuff:
You go fear Super League. Lol
Players that shine there will be going to Greece & Romania for trials.

who told u it will be among the best 10 league in world football and will also bring back the likes of ndidi, ihenacho and other top Nigerian stars coming to Enyimba because they are the only Nigerian club likely to be picked