Deliberations are underway by members of the CAF executive committee on whether to ratify a number of recommendations adopted by CAF’s Marketing and TV team on Wednesday at the two-day African Football Symposium in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
CAF’s Marketing and TV team proposed that The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) should be open to other continents in order to increase revenue and attract new partners.
The team said it had agreed on the increasing of the AFCON teams “from 16 to 24 and to have from 20 to 21 African teams in addition to 3 or 4 invitees from other continents”.
Proposal at #CAFSymposium for 20-21 African teams at AFCON & 3-4 foreign teams. Just imagine one of the invitee foreign team winning Afcon.🤔 pic.twitter.com/XHtxVyQm9a— Juliet Bawuah (@julietbawuah) July 19, 2017
It also recommended the hosting of the AFCON 2023 by countries outside Africa who have ready infrastructure.
They also recommended “the possibility to host the AFCON Final Tournament by countries outside the African continent like China, USA, or Qatar to host the AFCON 2023 since all the required infrastructure will be already implemented for the FIFA WC 2022,” it added.
The CAF Marketing and TV team said these recommendations will optimize revenues and attract new partners including sponsors.
Other recommendations were also made on the timing and expansion of the AFCON.
However, all or some of these proposals can only be implemented if ratified by the executive committee, who also have to decide whether to expand the teams to 24 teams and move the hosting dates to June and July.
If the dates are moved, it will end the years long argument over the timing by European clubs who lose African players during the competition in January and February.
Present at the symposium in Rabat were each of the 55 Member Associations affiliated to CAF including coaches and former footballers.