New CAF President Motsepe Wants An African Country To Win World Cup Soon
The new boss of Africa’s football governing body Patrice Motsepe says a team from the continent must win the World Cup in the near future.
The South African businessman, who was elected unopposed on Friday to become the leader of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), revealed that one of his key ambitions is to help an African side to clinch the global title.
The 59-year-old mining magnate was speaking for the first time since Friday when he took charge of the Cairo-based organisation following the elections in Morocco.
No African country has won the global tournament since it started in 1930 with the continent’s best performance being the quarter-finals.
Ghana (2010), Senegal (2002) and Cameroon (1990) are the only three African countries to have reached the last eight of the competition in its 91 years of existence.
Africa had a disastrous outing at the last tournament in Russia in 2018 with the continent’s five representatives failing to make any meaningful impact.
Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia all bombed out of the competition at the group stage and Motsepe believes that must change immediately.
“An African team must win the World Cup in the near future,” said at a press conference in his native South Africa on Tuesday.
“We must stop being excessively pessimistic and negative (about the World Cup), there is no continent that has succeeded by dwelling on its failures.
“I am confident African football will succeed, become self-sufficient, and the best in the world.”
Motsepe will be in charge of the continent’s World Cup qualifiers for the first time when the African group stage of the qualifiers for the 2022 comeptition start in June.
The matches will be played in a five-month period as the countries fight for places in Qatar.
The qualifiers were scheduled for October last year but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a reshuffle of the continent’s international football calendar.
The matches will be played from late May and end in October with the group winners advancing to a play-off round where the victors will earn a place in Qatar.
Those final playoff matches will be played between 8-16 November.