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‘African Football Must Become The Best In The World’: Billionaire Patrice Motsepe Lays Out His Plan To Become Continent’s Soccer Boss

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Who will become Africa’s new soccer supremo? It’s a question that has been consuming the continent’s soccer fraternity in recent weeks with the elective congress in March in Rabat, Morocco, drawing nearer. On Thursday, Patrice Motsepe from South Africa, one of four candidates for the presidency of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), launched his ten-point manifesto ‘Building African Football To Be The Best In The World’.

For the first time, a media-shy Motsepe expanded on his vision for African soccer’s future and articulated the potential policies he will seek to implement at CAF. Flanked by controversial Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) president Phillip Chiyangwa and South African Football Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan, Motsepe revealed that good governance, global best practices, investment in African football infrastructure, increasing prize money and statutory reforms would be high on his agenda if he is elected as CAF president. Africa’s ninth-richest man, with an estimated wealth of $3.2 billion, repeatedly stressed the need to engage more with the private sector as well. Building partnerships and sponsorships with the private sector and other potential partners formed a continuous theme throughout his three-hour long manifesto launch. 

In 2003, Motsepe acquired Mamelodi Sundowns and transformed the Pretoria-based club into both a domestic powerhouse, rivaling the traditional South African giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, and a continental force, winning the African champions league in 2016. His motives, however, to enter the murky world of CAF politics remain shrouded in mystery. Motsepe has the reputation of a solid businessman, who made his fortune in mining, a national industry that doesn’t allow much leeway for mistakes or sinister practices in South Africa. Why then risk reputational damage by seeking the top position of an organization marked by decades of endemic corruption and antediluvian thinking? 

Motsepe explained: “I was asked three, four times: ‘will you stand for CAF?’ I said: ‘No, Absolutely not!’ I am at the stage of my life where I most enjoy the work of my philanthropy. The problem is when I focus on doing something, it requires a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and more importantly, tangible progress. There is no one in Africa who has lost more money in football than I have. It’s a stupid love. African football must become the best in the world. It won’t happen overnight, but that is the test of what we are going to do over the next few years. For me, the test is what the results are going to be. You have got to win in the 90 minutes. The buck stops with the president.”

His allies, regional FA presidents, painted Motsepe as a unifier and a game changer, who can bring the complex continent up to speed and leverage his business credentials to monetize the African game more. In 2017, Forbes recognized Motsepe as one of the 100 greatest business minds in the world. The South African, the founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, became a billionaire in 2008. He was the first Black African to feature on the Forbes billionaire list. Motsepe is married to the fashion entrepreneur Precious Moloi. His elder sister is married to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Motsepe’s presidency would unlock relationships with investors for the African game.

“We need money from the private sector,” said Motsepe. “We are going to talk to our brothers from MTN. We are family. It is good business. We make more money when we invest more. We've got to increase prize money in the Champions League. The president of Total - the global company - his name is Patrick. We know each other. He is one of the first people I am going to visit. We have got to restructure the Africa Cup of Nations in the next two years.” 

The South African represents a breath of fresh air as well, his backers argue, given CAF’s long history of corruption. 

The organization’s current president Ahmad Ahmad, a Malagasy who ascended the throne in 2017 with behind-the-scenes support from FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, has been banned from all soccer-related activity for five years by the world federation over ethics violations. Under Ahmad, CAF’s finances have come under severe pressure. The confederation ripped up a $1 billion television and marketing rights deal with France-based company Lagardere Sports and a recent audit by PwC suggested that tens of millions of dollars had been misappropriated at the governing body. 

Motsepe can bring best practices from the business world and his camp was bullish that it can win the elections. Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Pinnick, who together Jordaan toured Africa to campaign with and for Motsepe, said they are working towards obtaining 40 votes, which would put Motsepe well over the top. CAF has 54 member associations. 

“There are 54 countries and the last time we backed Ahmad we did 35, that is what we predicted in Harare,” said Chiyangwa, a nephew of the late dictator Robert Mugabe. “I am looking at upwards of that, let’s work on that. As a matter of fact, we are fighting for upwards of Ahmad’s numbers. This time around, it is a much more aggressive fight. We have not grown because people were looking for a way or place to feed their belly. You are a better candidate. We will fight. If they go, dirty we go dirty; if they go smart, we go smart.”

In recent months, the South African has been on the campaign trail, courting FA presidents at both the African Nations Championship (CHAN) and the Club World Cup in Qatar. He also travelled extensively in west and central Africa to engage with the electorate, a sign that Motsepe understands the true extent of the uphill task he faces: CAF has never been headed by someone from Anglophone Africa. Last month, regional body COSAFA endorsed Motsepe unanimously, bringing the South African a voting block of fourteen nations.

When pressed about where his votes and a way to victory would come from, Motsepe refrained from any grandstanding, with a typically evasive answer. He said: “President Philippe, president Jordaan and all the others have really done a lot of good work, but the key issue is to make sure there are extensive discussions throughout the continent, and the expectations and the aspirations of all of the regions are taken into account. The issue of where you are going to get what amount of votes is a matter that will reveal itself, except to emphasize that there is no place in the African continent that we are not engaging, but also that we are not seeking advice from.”

FIFA president Infantino is another soccer administrator who has been criss-crossing the continent extensively recently with visits to Mauritania, Senegal, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Morocco and Mali. Infantino’s timing - on the eve of the CAF elections - has invited scrutiny. The FIFA supremo is seen as meddling in CAF affairs, violating the obligation that a FIFA president should remain neutral in the elections at a confederation. 

In 2019, he sent Senegalese secretary-general Fatma Samoura to Cairo to clean up CAF, but she fled back to HQ on the Zurichberg as resentment over her unilateral actions and FIFA’s interference grew.

It is believed that the FIFA boss, who also maintains good ties with Ahmed Yahya, a candidate from Mauritania, favors the South African to succeed Ahmad. Last year, the pair met at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Motsepe however dismissed that perception as misinformation.

“I am seen to be getting the backing of FIFA,” explained Motsepe. “They said the same thing about the president of Mauritania, who is also a candidate and then when they saw that was not too successful they raised other issues which sought to create negativity between Infantino and myself. [There is] lots of misinformation.” 

With sixteen days remaining to the elections, the race remains unpredictable. In the next few days, lobbying and politicking in African football will reach a crescendo. Motsepe can drum up promises of a new dawn for African soccer, but he will have to navigate a tough electoral field to win the presidency. He is running against Jacques Anouma of Ivory Coast‚ Augustin Senghor of Senegal and Yahya from Mauritania, who are all affiliated to member associations and belong to the continent’s influential and powerful Francophone block.

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