CAF president launches pan-African inter-school championship with own $10 million

The South African billionaire and president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice Motsepe, on Tuesday in Abidjan announced that he will personally finance the pan-African inter-school football championship, which will be launched “between 2022 and 2023”, in collaboration with FIFA.

The donation will amount to US$ 10 million and will come from the foundation that bears his name.

On a visit to Côte d’Ivoire, the CAF president recalled that the future competition will concern boys and girls aged between 12 to 14 years and will take place “first at national level via national associations, then at zonal level with the organization of six regional tournaments which will serve as qualifying rounds for the final tournament”, according to CAF’s governing body.

Initially, pilot national tournaments will be organized in some countries such as Benin and DR Congo.

According to CAF, “the qualifying tournaments will be played between May and December 2021, while the finals are scheduled for February 2022” and “the first full edition of the CAF-FIFA Pan-African Inter-school Football Championship, with all the countries of the continent, will be held between 2022 and 2023”.

In the end, the prize money will be used by the winning schools “to provide infrastructure, facilities and academic equipment conducive to the development of football and education”.