President of the Namibia Football Association (NFA) Ranga Haikali strongly believes that if the issue of inadequate football facilities in Africa is fully addressed, the planned Pan-African Super League will be a fantastic project and will fast-track the development of the game.
The formation of the 20-team Pan-African Super League was officially endorsed at the Confederation of African Football (Caf)’s extraordinary general assembly on Friday in Cairo, Egypt, where Haikali was also in attendance.
The envisaged super league will be home to the continent’s top 20 clubs, and is aimed at improving the overall quality and appeal of African football while also generating much-needed income, which will then be streamed to all 54 Caf member associations.
Sharing his takeaways from the gathering, Haikali yesterday told New Era Sport the super league has great potential and will help improve the game on the continent, but said for the super league to reach its full potential, the thorny issue of inadequate football facilities must be addressed.
“The real challenge is infrastructure development that needs to be developed to make things happen. The majority of the members voted in favour of it, and it was approved,” he said.
The 54 Caf member countries voted to give the organisation’s executive committee permission to move forward with plans to introduce the super league.
Also at Friday’s gathering, Caf threw its weight behind Fifa’s plans to host the World Cup biennially, with Caf president Patrice Motsepe indicating that it will benefit African football greatly.
Fifa’s chief of global development and former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger also made a presentation on the feasibility of hosting the World Cup every two years.
Fifa’s feasibility study into shifting from a traditional four-year World Cup cycle to a biennial one has attracted criticism from European football’s governing body UEFA and the South American Football Confederation.
The World Cup has been played every four years since its first edition in 1930, apart from when it was cancelled during World War II. - ohembapu@nepc.com.na99