CAF President Motsepe: An African team must win World Cup soon

NEW Confederation of African Football President Patrice Motsepe has expressed his desire to see teams from the continent succeed on the global stage.

Motsepe was unanimously elected to succeed Ahmad Ahmad on Friday at the CAF Elective Congress in Rabat, Morocco after his opponents withdrew from the race.

The farthest African teams have reached at the senior World Cup, football’s most important tournament, has been the quarter-finals,  and only three countries from the continent have reached that stage.

Cameroon were the first African team to advance to the last eight of the World Cup in 1990, followed by Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010.

“An African team must win the FIFA World Cup in the near future. Therefore private sector must sponsor African football,” Motsepe said in Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday during his first press conference since returning home from Morocco.

“All African teams must compete and do well globally.”

Motsepe, who is a mining billionaire and owner of former CAF Champions League winners Mamelodi Sundowns, also promised to help his country become more competitive.

“I can’t be a President of CAF and Bafana Bafana are not doing well. Bafana Bafana must do well,” he vowed.

Motsepe was welcomed back home by both South Africa Football Association and sports ministry heads.

“I want to thank SAFA and President of SAFA Dr Danny Jordaan for the initiative and leading the campaign that led to Dr Patrice Motsepe winning the CAF Presidency,” Minister of Sports, Nathi Mthethwa said. 

Jordaan then took Motsepe up on his challenge to make African teams achieve global success.

“President, you know how to win trophies, I want you to help Africa win trophies on the global stage,” Jordaan said Motsepe, whose club Sundowns have won multiple South African Premier League titles as well as the CAF Champions League in recent years.

Motsepe had said on Friday during his acceptance speech that he would immediately see to the return of African football matches to African television.

A deal struck by the previous regime had made it difficult for African football lovers to watch their national teams and clubsides on television.

He said: “We spend lots of money on European football and our new negotiations on TV rights should benefit African football. The face of African football will never be the same again. 

‘’We need to make things happen. African football should globally be competitive.’’