The South African Football Association (SAFA) will be backing Patrice Motsepe’s bid for re-election as president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
This was according to SAFA president Danny Jordaan, who felt football on continent has seen a big improvement since Motsepe was first elected.
Motsepe, who has a close working relationship with Fifa president Gianni Infantino, announced his intention to stand for election again, and received the vote of confidence from a number of federations across the African continent.
The billionaire mining magnate and owner of Mamelodi Sundowns has been praised for his impact in raising the profile of African football around the world.
He was also instrumental in the launching of the African Football League,
And now, Motsepe has recieved the backing of his home country’s federation, plus those from the COSAFA region.
“I’ve spoken to all the presidents in the region, some of them cannot be here, but did send messages of support and we want to explain why we are supporting the name of Dr Patrice Motsepe,” Jordaan said at a press conference at SAFA House on Wednesday.
“We did so the first time he served a term and now it’s the second term he is going for.
“From our perspective, there has been significant improvement in CAF, not just from a financial point of view, because often we only look at the financial aspect, but also from a football point of view, we have now the CAF Schools competition, the U20 Championship, Cosafa Men’s and Women’s that’s on now,” said the SAFA president.
Motsepe was first elected to the top job of African football in 2021 after a deal brokered by FIFA saw his challengers withdraw from the election, which left him as the only candidate.
IOL Sport