‘Absolute Nonsense’ - CAF Boss Patrice Motsepe Hits Back at Claims of Copying Europe and ‘FIFA Colonization’

CAF president Patrice Motsepe has slammed claims that African football is being controlled by FIFA and Europe following some key changes made to their competitions recently.

Just before the start of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations last month, Motsepe announced that the tournament will now be held after every four years, just like the European Championships and the FIFA World Cup, after the 2027 and 2028 editions.

Further, Motsepe also announced the introduction of an Africa Nations League, similar to the UEFA Nations League, which will now be running in between after AFCON.

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Those decisions were not received well by many in Africa who feel AFCON has been ‘diluted’ as being a biennial tournament gave a chance to many countries to host, improving football infrastructure in Africa, while some claimed CAF had been bullied into submission by the powerful European football union and world football governing body FIFA.

This question was put to Motsepe during his pre-AFCON 2025 final press conference by a journalist on Saturday and the South African billionaire was not happy with the claims.

“Where you are talking absolute nonsense is to say to me that we run Africa for Europe,” an angry Motsepe responded to the journalist. “Absolute rubbish, you are insulting us. We run Africa for Africa.”

“Our job is to listen to people like yourself and others and whether you object is irrelevant. When you have 54 nations in Africa saying that the Africa Nations League is world class. It does not matter how you look at African football,” Motsepe said.

Motsepe, who was first elected CAF president in March 2021, before getting re-elected for a second term in March 2025, says African football has experienced tremendous growth during his tenure and all he is doing is to generate more money for the development of the game on the continent.

“When I became president, members [associations] were getting $150,000 (Ksh19.3 million) which we increased to $200,000 (Ksh25.8 million),” added Motsepe.

“Now, we have increased to $400,000 (Ksh51.6 million) so we have to take decisions which may be regarded as unpopular but from a beneficial perspective what does it mean for African football? Every single of our 54 presidents said this is the best thing that happened.”

AFCON 2025 will give way to the 2027 tournament set to be staged in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, before a 2028 edition, whose hosts are yet to be determined, after which the tournament will be staged after every four years.