Motsepe promises African football that is self-supporting and globally competitive
* The 54 African countries who are members of CAF are extremely proud and inspired
* By the victories and successes of the five African nations that represented CAF at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
* We are also particularly proud of Morocco’s historic qualification to the semi-finals
* The first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup for an African Nation to qualified for the semis
CAFonline
Excited by the historic performance of Morocco and its qualification for the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup at the Qatar 2022 finals, Confederation of African Football (CAF) believes its objective of ensuring that an African nation shall win the FIFA World Cup “is alive and within reach”.
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At a press conference ahead of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) Algeria 2022 — to be held from January 13 to February 4, 2023 — CAF president Patrice Motsepe said Africa is inspired by the performances of the five African national teams that participated at the Qatar 2022 — Morocco, Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia and Ghana.
“The 54 African countries who are members of CAF are extremely proud and inspired by the victories and successes of the five African nations that represented CAF at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
“We are also particularly proud of Morocco’s historic qualification to the semi-finals [which] is the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup that an African Nation has qualified for the semi-finals.”
Morocco had a fairlytale run that the Qatar 2022, in which they were grouped alongside Belgium (whom they beat 2-0); Canada (winning 2-1 before drawing 0-0 with Croatia to date Spain in Round of 16 whom they beat 3-0 through post match penalties.
The Atlas Lions went on to beat Cristiano Ronaldo’s heavily-fancied Portugal 1-0 to make history of reaching the semifinals in their sixth World Cup appearance — and against another world football giants, defending champions France — which was a different ball game altogether that saw them lose 0-2.
The Atlas Lions became the fourth African nation to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup, following in the footsteps of Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010).
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Until then, none from Africa — or the Arab world — had ever made it to the last four, with only Senegal making it into the Qatar 2022 knockout stages where they lost 0-3 against England in the Round of 16, having qualified in Group A alongside hosts Qatar (3-1), Ecuador (2-1) and Netherlands (0-2).
Tunisia, Cameroon and Ghana never made it to the knockout stages in their groups — Tunisia in Group D with France (1-0), Australia (0-1) and Denmark (0-0); Cameroon in Group G with Brazil (1-0); Serbia (3-3) and Switzerland (0-1 while Ghana in Group H were against Portugal (2-3); Uruguay (0-2) and South Korea (3-2).
Motsepe congratulated Morocco for the achievement and expressed and in keeping “alive and within reach” the objective of ensuring that an African nation wins the FIFA World Cup, the CAF president said: “We are making significant progress in ensuring that African football is self-supporting and globally competitive.
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“This is partly reflected by the outstanding performances by Morocco, Senegal, Cameroon, Tunisia and Ghana at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. We will continue to invest in schools football, youth academies for boys and girls and football infrastructure and facilities.
“CAF is also committed to improving the quality of trainers, coaches, referees and football in each of the 54 CAF Member Associations.The implementation of governance, auditing and administrative global best practices is bearing fruit as mutually beneficial discussions are taking place with our sponsors, partners and financial investors.
“We are also making good progress on the African Super League and announcements in this regard will be made in due course. We will continue to use football as a tool to unite people from different races, ethnic groups and religious backgrounds and to contribute to improving the socio- economic and living conditions of all people.”
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He thus looks forward to the TotalEnergies CHAN Algeria 2022, saying CAF is confident that this will be the best CHAN to date — whose day one highlight will be aNorth Africa derby between Algeria and neighbours Libya on January 13.
For the first time in the history of CHAN — in its 7th edition — 18 countries will be competing for the title, an increase from the previous 16 nations.
The tournament has been divided into five groups — three of 4 teams each and two of 3 teams each.
- Group A (Baraki Stadium): Algeria, Libya, Mozambique, Ethiopia
- Group B (Stade du 19 Mai 1956, Annaba): DR Congo, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal
- Group C (Chahid Hamlaoui Stadium, Constantine): Morocco, Sudan, Madagascar, Ghana
- Group D (Olympic Stadium, Oran): Mali, Angola, Mauritania
- Group E (Olympic Stadium, Oran): Cameroon, Congo, Niger
Morocco, CHAN defending champions
The defending champions for the tournament, which features footballers playing in their respective national leagues, are interestingly the Atlas Lions of Morocco on February 7, 2021.
They became the first team to win two consecutive titles in the history of the tournament that was rolled out in 2009 with DR Congo being the maiden champions — defeating Ghana 2-0 in a tournament that had 8 participating teams hosted by Côte d’Ivoire.
The second edition was played in Sudan in 2011 with the number of participants increased from 8 to 16 and in the final at El Merrikh Stadium in Omdurman, Tunisia thrashed Angola 3-0 while Libya wrote history by winning their first ever CAF major trophy when the Mediterranean Knights defeated Ghana 4-3 after a goalless draw in full and extra time.
The fourth edition was held in Rwanda in 2016 where DR Congo were crowned champions for the second time defeating Mali 3-0 in the final. Meschak Elia brace and Jonathan Bolingi’s strike meant The Leopards became the first team to bag two CHAN titles.
Morocco won their first CHAN title when they hosted the fifth edition in 2018 thrashing Nigeria 4-0 to win the trophy in grand style through a brace from Zakaria Hadraf before Waleed El Karti and Ayoub El Kaabi — who finished the tournament as Top Scorer on record nine goals — put the cherry on top of the cake for the hosts.
Cameroon hosted the sixth edition of the CHAN in January and February 2021 — an edition delayed due to the CoVID-19 pandemic — but the hosts never made it to the final but Morocco and Mali.
In the final, the defending champions Atlas Lions overcame Mali 2-0 to win the trophy for the second successive time with Soufiane Bouftini and Ayoub El Kaabi scoring the goals in the second half at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaoundé.—Additional reporting by Maravi Express
