{"id":4663,"date":"2026-01-14T18:48:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T18:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=4663"},"modified":"2026-01-14T18:48:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T18:48:57","slug":"the-betrayal-of-afcon-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2026\/01\/14\/the-betrayal-of-afcon-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"The Betrayal of AFCON (Part Three)<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (December 30th<\/sup> 2025)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fruits of the Poisoned Tree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dust has had time to settle since the President of the African Football Confederation (CAF) Dr Patrice Motsepe announced at his pre-tournament press conference almost two weeks ago that the historic Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) would change with the times. Gianni Infantino, the current President of FIFA has made no secret of his desire to curtail AFCON to suit the needs and wishes of European football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infantino is a European, a former General-Secretary of Europe\u2019s governing body. It is not surprising that he remains a European at heart, and knowns that Europe remains the dominant confederation in world football. But Infantino claims to be Africa\u2019s friend \u2013 champion even.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would a friend and champion of Africa disparage the continent\u2019s flagship tournament. The late Issa Hayatou explained clearly and concisely, but firmly too that Africa needed to have AFCONs every year. CAF, under his governance saw it as a chance to develop African football, its infrastructures and the economies of host nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wanted the whole of Africa to have its turn and for development to occur, not just in football, but through it, hospitality infrastructures \u2013 hotels, roads, transport systems and much more. An AFCON every two years was essential to achieve this. Hayatou is no longer with us, but his mission is. Has it been achieved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer is an obvious no. So, what does that mean? For Africa, it means countries will lag behind in all these areas and also on the football pitch. Morocco and Egypt in particular have the resources to deliver much of this and more. They do not need to host to develop their nations, but others do. Without it they will fall behind on and off the pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Priorities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his explanation of the decisions of the ExCo, President Motsepe announced that the prize money the winners would receive had been increased by 44% in less than 5 years. Excellent for the winners who are likely to be an already established force in African football, but won\u2019t that increase the gap between the haves and have-nots of African football?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And worse still the opportunities for countries to benefit from an unexpected win of Africa\u2019s most prestigious tournament has been halved as the ExCo agreed to long-standing European demand and Infantino\u2019s wish that AFCON only be hosted every four years. From 2028 unless the decision is changed, AFCON will only occur every four years. That means Hayatou\u2019s mission and vision is in tatters. There are 54 counties in CAF. How can hosting every four years allow countries to develop as they need to on and off the pitch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motespe announced that a new tournament involving all members of CAF, the African Nations League will take place between September and November every year. The questions are will that address the gaps in Hayatou\u2019s vision and how will people react to the dismantling of AFCON\u2019s tradition?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (December 30th 2025) The Fruits of the Poisoned Tree The dust has had time to settle since the President of [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,17],"tags":[1711,120,104,124,35,103,1710,81,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4664,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663\/revisions\/4664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}