Mr. Luxolo September, Head of TV and Communications at the Confederations of Africa Football (CAF) says the newly introduced African Football League (AFL) will yield lots of benefits to the continent.
The competition, introduced by the football body, features the continent’s premier and iconic clubs with an aim of creating a powerful property that would bring much-needed new streams of financial investment into African football.
Speaking in an interview, the Sports Personality said, “The African Football League is an exciting idea that is really bringing about change, new innovations to the space and freshness”.
He added that the competition is expected to bring about exciting movements in African football as it features top African sides who would help generate revenue through the sport.
The Head of TV and Communications said the league had not been introduced to compete against the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederations Cup, rather to contribute to the growth of the football ecosystem.
“African football needs innovative solutions so that they can be self sustaining itself, so that we don’t hear our best players playing in Europe and other places. We have to develop our own league”, he added.
Mr. September highlighted that the Africa Football League would go a long way to change the face of African football years to come.
The first edition of the AFL will feature eight of Africa’s most famous and successful teams from the three African Regional Blocks, the North Region, the Central-West Region and the South-East Region.
The teams are Al Ahly (Egypt), Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa), Esperance (Tunisia), Wydad Casablanca (Morocco), Simba SC (Tanzania), TP Mazembe (DR Congo), Enyimba (Nigeria) and Atlético Petróleos de Luanda (Angola).
Winners of the inaugural African Football League would receive prize money of $4 Million whereas the runner-up would also pocket $2.8 Million.
The competition is scheduled for Friday October 20,2023 to Saturday, November 11, 2023.
