Youth football: CAF school championship kicks off on 13 November

It was one of the priorities of CAF president Patrice Motsepe, and above all a dream that is about to become reality. The CAF school championship kicks off on 13 November 2022 in Abidjan. To talk about it, the Ivorian Football Federation pulled out all the stops on 3 November in the conference room at its headquarters. Diabaté Abdoulaye, the project's in-house lead, and Boureima Balima, executive director of the UFOA, faced the press. "The CAF school championship starts in a few days. The Ivorian representatives for this competition were chosen in consultation with the officials of the Ivorian office for school and university sports. Before the new Comex came in, the OISSU had already begun its competitions, and with the various shifts in the calendar, from July to September, the children were already on holiday. After a full discussion, we decided to keep the schools that were still in the competition. That is how we selected the Groupe Scolaire Venus de Saïoua and the Collège Fontaine II de Saïoua, in the west of the country. This is a very important competition for Côte d'Ivoire. The FIF is so committed to it that president Idriss Diallo tasked the DTN, along with coaches from men's and women's football, with travelling to Saïoua for preparation camps for the various teams," explained Diabaté Abdoulaye, chairman of the commission for youth football in schools. On the question of awards and, above all, prize money, the UFOA chief in Abidjan was fairly clear. "As for the rewards, the money will go through the federations, which are CAF's representatives. CAF will build a pitch for the winner. President Motsepé will be there with the members of his executive committee, all the presidents of UFOA Zone B, CAF's vice-presidents and some FIFA experts for the kick-off of the competition." Besides Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo will take part, each with two teams: girls and boys.

Sanh Séverin