CAF: an institution adrift

In a worrying financial state despite positive announcements, CAF was showing off in the summer of 2025 by leaking news of advanced negotiations for a one-billion-dollar tender covering all broadcast and marketing rights for the next eight years.

Two companies were interested, including IMG, the famous American firm, as well as an Italian company, Iris Sport Media, which has close ties to several FIFA officials, including Mario Gallavotti, the Italian lawyer very close to Infantino who had already overseen the end of the contract between CAF and Lagardère and the short-lived African Super League.

Very optimistic last summer, going so far as to call international journalists to show that "everything was fine" and that pessimistic articles were "fake news," CAF has dramatically changed its tone a year later and even publicly abandoned the call for tenders. Farewell, then, to the billion dollars.

Precarious finances and the interests of officials

Having failed to obtain a spectacular and necessary contract for its finances, CAF is also deprived of its main source of income since the Africa Cup of Nations will now be held every four years.

A decision made under strong pressure from FIFA and without a vote by the 54 federations affiliated with CAF, whose economic consequences are obviously dire: the substantial broadcast and marketing rights that previously came into the African Confederation's accounts every two years will now arrive only once every four years.

And if Patrice Motsepe, initially opposed to this idea, tried to convince his audience that making competitions rarer would lead to increased revenue, no one is fooled: with already shaky finances, CAF has once again shot itself in the foot.

Nowadays the number one public defender of Gianni Infantino, Samuel Eto’o was moreover the main African official to support the FIFA president’s idea of an AFCON every four years, just like Souleiman Waberi, his Djiboutian counterpart, actively supported by FIFA despite multiple accusations of money laundering and embezzlement.

In private, several members of CAF’s Executive Committee are outraged at the positions taken by the two men, although they had previously stood as real opponents to the problematic governance of the now former Secretary General, Véron Mosengo-Omba.

Now aligned with FIFA's interests, Eto’o and Waberi are seen as intermediaries just like Fouzi Lekjaa, the president of the Moroccan Federation, and Ahmed Yahya, his Mauritanian counterpart, who have argued for absolute support for Infantino, the same man behind the economic and political troubles of CAF...

Motsepe delays the secretary general election

Paying little attention to the institution, the African officials, especially those sitting on the Executive Committee, let the situation fester while focusing above all on personal interests and advancement. Worse still, they believed that the departure of Véron Mosengo-Omba would solve everything, when in fact it has only amplified the divisions.

Despite his highly questionable record, Infantino’s friend managed to leave CAF whenever and however he wanted to run for the presidency of FECOFA after a political sleight of hand between FIFA and the Congolese government removed all opponents. Yet several people close to him remain in place at CAF and have taken the opportunity to continue running the institution as they please, notably Reem Adel, the human resources director.

With an administration running on idle, backstage scheming seems to be the staff’s only activity, mainly by the managers. Cedrick Aghey, the director of legal affairs and compliance whose promotion had never been formally approved in advance by the Executive Committee (which in theory renders his appointment null and void), has therefore been plotting with Reem Adel for weeks to put together a file to invalidate the candidacy of the interim secretary general, Samson Adamu, for the position he is seeking.

Knowing he will probably be dismissed if Adamu is permanently appointed to the post, Aghey tried to use the romantic relationship that the Nigerian has had for years with a CAF employee – a consensual and perfectly legal relationship that he had previously reported. In vain, the legal director’s plans have failed, just like his application to join the UCI, the International Cycling Union…

As for Adamu, his promotion as interim secretary general has resulted in no major decisions. Wanting to avoid any controversy or take any risks to secure the job, he has withdrawn into inaction and follows Motsepe's wishes instead, a president who deliberately delays the election to have more control over his secretary general, while listening to the advice of his former secretary general, Véron Mosengo-Omba...

Uncertainty for AFCON 2027

Already openly preparing the succession of Motsepe, several federation presidents are concerned about decisions made by the South African president, who has totally lost control of the issues.

Struggling to repeat that AFCON 2027 will take place, Motsepe does not realize that CAF’s expert reports cast huge doubts on Kenya and Uganda's ability to be ready in time. Raising its voice, CAF is hoping for a reaction from the host countries while the majority of the Executive Committee has been privately saying for months that it is "impossible" to hold AFCON on the scheduled dates due to delays in organization.

Despite this, Motsepe continues to display public optimism with talking points advised by Lux September, CAF’s communications director who is mainly seen as an aide to the president, always in his shadow. Trying to find out “who is the mole,” he is seeking to gain influence, like other officials who serve one camp or another, according to the interests of the moment.

In this dismal situation, compounded by the cold war between Lekjaa and Motsepe since the last AFCON (knowing that the relationship between the two men was far from optimal beforehand), one thing is certain: not a single official has thought about the sustainability of the African Confederation, whose interests they nonetheless swear to defend in front of the cameras...