CAF recently announced in collaboration with FIFA, that it’ll be launching a new annual club competition that will generate money for participants at a scale never seen before in the continent. The Africa Super League was launched in Tanzania this week amid much fanfare, with huge prize money for the 24 clubs who qualify for the first edition next year.
The winner of the African League will receive $11 million, more than double what Senegal’s national team got for winning the Africa Cup of Nations in February this year. The first edition of the Super League is set to kick off in August 2023, continue until May 2024 and culminate in a “Super Bowl-like” final.
What To Expect
- The Super League will begin with three eight-club regional groups — north, west-center, south-east — and each team plays the other seven at home and away.
- The top five finishers in each section plus the best sixth-placed side advance to a knockout phase consisting of a round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals over two legs, and a final.
- Qualifiers will be decided by rankings based on results in CAF competitions over a period of time yet to be announced. There will reportedly be clubs from 16 countries in the launch edition with a maximum of three from a nation. Morocco could provide Casablanca clubs Raja and Wydad plus Renaissance Berkane.
- CAF president Patrice Motsepe said each qualifier would receive $3.5 million upfront to cover travel and accommodation costs and to strengthen squads. Travel costs severely deplete the funds of Champions League competitors with only the 16 clubs who reach the group stage receiving prize money, starting at $550,000
According to Quartz, Attempts to form a European Super League failed last year following a fan backlash against the alleged greed of the six clubs involved. CAF’s move, on the other hand, appears to target a historic African soccer problem.
