Confederation_Africain_de_Football

Confederation of African Football

Confederation of African Football

Governing body of association football in Africa

The Confederation of African Football (CAF)[lower-alpha 1] (in French Confédération Africaine de Football) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the Grand Hotel[2] in Khartoum, Sudan[3] by the national football associations of: Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and South Africa.[4] following formal discussions between the aforementioned associations at the FIFA Congress held on 7 June 1956 at Avenida Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal.[5]

Quick Facts Abbreviation, Founded ...

Representing the African confederation of FIFA, CAF organizes runs and regulates national team and club continental competitions annually or biennially such as the Africa Cup of Nations and Women's Africa Cup of Nations, which they control the prize money and broadcast rights to. CAF will be allocated 9 spots at the FIFA World Cup starting from 2026 and could have an opportunity of 10 spots with the addition of an intercontinental play-off tournament involving 6 teams to decide the last 2 FIFA World Cup places (46+2).

The main headquarters of CAF was first situated within the offices of the Sudanese Football Association in Khartoum until it experienced a fire outbreak and then moved to a town near Cairo, Egypt until 2002. Youssef Mohamad was the first general secretary and Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem, the first president. President Patrice Motsepe from South Africa was elected on 12 March 2021 in an unopposed elections held in Rabat, Morocco.[6][7]

History

Main article: History of CAF

Anthem

CAF launched a competition for all African composers to create its anthem without lyrics to reflect the cultural patrimony and the music of Africa on 18 September 2007.[8]

Leadership

More information Name, Position ...

Sources:[9][10]

Members and zones

Members

African regional federations
  UNAF (North Africa)
  WAFU (West Africa)
  UNIFFAC (Central Africa)
  CECAFA (East Africa)
  COSAFA (Southern Africa)
More information Code, Association ...

Additionally, there are territories located in Africa which are not affiliated with CAF or any other confederation to any extent.

Some African states with limited or no international recognition have official national teams, but none have been considered for CAF membership. Instead, they are affiliated with organizations such as CONIFA.

Competitions

See also: List of association football competitions and FIFA International Match Calendar

CAF competitions

International

Shortly after formation, CAF organized the Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated AFCON) in 1957 and it has since become its flagship competition. Faced with undisclosed decline in popularity of local competitions and the mass exodus of homegrown footballers to Europe, Asia and the Americas in the 1990s and early 2000s, CAF launched the African Nations Championship (alternatively, though not widely used, the Championship of African Nations (CHAN)) on 11 September 2007 and began organization two years later, to address this issue. CAF also organizes qualification tournaments/competitions for the FIFA U-20 World Cup and the FIFA U-17 World Cup for its member associations; both of which initially began on a home-and-away two-legged basis but has since 1995 been organized in appointed host countries as respectively the Under-20 and U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

For women's football operates competitions which currently serve as qualification tournaments for the related FIFA-organized tournaments which launched at the exact same year they began formation. The flagship African women's football competition/tournament is the Women's Africa Cup of Nations, which launched in 1991 as the African Women's Championship and was known in the mass media between 2015 and 2021 as the Africa/African Women/Women's Cup of Nations, which currently qualifies 4 teams to the FIFA Women's World Cup. CAF also organizes qualification matches for "promising future female footballers" at both the Under-20 and Under-17 levels, launched in 2002 and 2008 respectively, both of which crowns no champions but instead qualifies 2 teams to compete at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup respectively.

Club

For African clubs, CAF runs the CAF Men's and Women's Champions League, the CAF Confederation Cup, the CAF Super Cup and the African Schools Football Championship for both males and females. First held in 1964 as the African Cup of Champions Clubs (simply known sometimes as the African Cup) and rebranded in 1997 as the CAF Champions League, this "prestigious" football club competition currently features the champions of top-division leagues of CAF member associations and the runners-up teams of the league classifications of member associations the top 12 ranked national associations as documented by the CAF 5-year ranking system.

A currently-former competition, the African Cup Winners' Cup, commenced in 1975 for national cup winners of member associations and a third currently-former competition, the CAF Cup, launched in 1992 for African teams who finished below the top 2 positions of the league classifications of member associations and haven't met any criteria for qualification to any CAF competition. CAF decided to merge these two competitions together to form the current second-tier CAF Confederation Cup in 2004, and it currently incorporates the participation of national cup winners from the Cup Winners' Cup, whiles maintaining the format of the participation of teams who finished 3rd in the top-division league classifications of the 12 highest-ranked member associations as documented by the CAF 5-Year Ranking system from the CAF Cup. It is also ranked below the CAF Champions League.[12]

The winners of the CAF Champions League play the winners of the African Cup Winners' Cup until 2004 and the CAF Confederation Cup thereafter in the CAF Super Cup which was launched in 1993.

The Afro-Asian Club Championship was an annual football match jointly organized between CAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) between the winners of the CAF Champions League and the winners of the AFC Champions League between 1987 and 1999.

The CAF Women's Champions League was announced and approved on 30 June 2020, launched on 12 September that year and began contesting the following year, i.e. 2021.[13][14] It features women's national league and cup winners nvolving the champions of CAF's sub-confederation qualification tournaments for women's club teams.

Current title holders

See also: Portal:Current events/Sports, 2024 in association football, 2024 in sports, and FIFA International Match Calendar
For events postponed or cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, see Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports.
More information Competition, Year ...

Competition winners

More information Nation, Men ...

Sponsorship

In October 2004, South African telecommunications giant, MTN, contracted a 4-year deal to sponsor CAF competitions worth US$12.5 million, which was the biggest sponsorship deal in African sporting history at that time.[15]

CAF opened new sponsorship callouts when MTN's contract expired and French telecommunications giant Orange scooped it up in July 2009, signing an 8-year comprehensive long-term undisclosed deal to sponsor CAF competitions with a value of €100 million.[16]

On 21 July 2016, French energy and petroleum giant, Total S.A., replaced Orange as the main sponsor with an 8-year sponsorship package from CAF for a value of €950 million[17] to support its competitions.[18] Total rebranded as TotalEnergies on 28 May 2021.[19]

The current main CAF sponsors are:

FIFA World Rankings

Overview

More information CAF*, FIFA ...

Historical leaders

Team of the Year

More information Year, First ...
More information Year, First ...

Other rankings

CAF overall ranking of African clubs by titles

The following clubs are the top 10 clubs in CAF competitions.

More information Pos, Club ...
Update as of 3 August 2022 in chronological order.

By country

The following table lists all the countries whose clubs have won at least one CAF competition. Egyptian clubs are the most successful, with a total of 41 titles. Egyptian clubs hold a record number of wins in the African Cup of Champions Clubs/CAF Champions League (16), the now-defunct African Cup Winners' Cup (8), the CAF Super Cup (12) and the now-defunct Afro-Asian Club Championship (3), followed by Tunisian clubs with 24 titles and they have the most victories in the now-defunct CAF Cup (4). In third place overall, Moroccan clubs have secured 23 titles and they have the most victories in the CAF Confederation Cup (7).

Key
CL African Cup of Champions Clubs/CAF Champions League
CWC African Cup Winners' Cup
C CAF Cup
CC CAF Confederation Cup
SC CAF Super Cup
AAC Afro-Asian Club Championship
More information Nationality, CL ...

CAF overall ranking of African clubs

Rankings are calculated by the CAF based on points gathered by African teams throughout their participation in international club tournaments organized by either CAF themselves or FIFA since the establishment of the first African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1964.[22]

More information Rank, Club ...

Men's Futsal

Per 22 June 2023:[23]

More information CAF, FIFA ...

(*)= Provisional ranking (played at least 10 matches) (**)= Inactive for more than 24 months

Women's Futsal

More information CAF, FIFA ...

Beach soccer national teams

Rankings are calculated by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). Top ten, last updated 12 March 2018 Archived 23 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine

More information CAF, BSWW ...

Major tournament records

Legend
  • 1st – Champions
  • 2nd – Runners-up
  • 3rd – Third place
  • 4th – Fourth place
  • QF – Quarter-finals (1934–1938, 1954–1970, and 1986–2022: knockout round of 8)
  • R2 — Round 2 (1974–1978, second group stage, top 8; 1982: second group stage, top 12; 1986–2022: knockout round of 16)
  • R1 — Round 1 (1930, 1950–1970 and 1986–present: group stage; 1934–1938: knockout round of 16; 1974–1982: first group stage)
  • Q — Qualified for upcoming tournament
  •  ••  – Qualified but withdrew
  •  •  – Did not qualify
  •  ×  – Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned
  •    – Hosts
  •     – Not affiliated in FIFA

For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

FIFA World Cup

Main article: National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup
See also: African nations at the FIFA World Cup
More information FIFA World Cup record, Team ...
Firsts
  • 1934:  Egypt first African team to qualify for the World Cup
  • 1970:  Morocco first African team to draw a match in the World Cup
  • 1978:  Tunisia first African team to win a match in the World Cup
  • 1982:  Algeria first African team to win two matches in the World Cup
  • 1986:  Algeria first African team to qualify for two consecutive World Cups
  • 1986:  Morocco first African team to reach the knockout stage (round of sixteen)
  • 1990:  Cameroon first African team to reach the knockout stage (quarter-finals)
  • 1994 and 1998:  Nigeria first African team to top a group stage and reach the knockout stage (round of 16) in two consecutive World Cups
  • 2002:  Senegal first African team to reach the knockout stage (quarter-finals) further on World Cup debut
  • 2010:  South Africa first African team to host the World Cup
  • 2014:  Algeria &  Nigeria first African teams to reach the knockout stage (round of sixteen) simultaneously in the World Cup
  • 2022:  Morocco first African team to reach the knockout stage (semi-finals), taking the fourth place

FIFA Women's World Cup

Main article: FIFA Women's World Cup records and statistics

Teams are sorted by number of appearances.

More information FIFA Women's World Cup record, Team ...

Olympic Games

Men's tournament

See also: Football at the Summer Olympics § Participating nations
More information Olympic Games (Men's tournament) record, Team ...

Women's tournament

See also: Football at the Summer Olympics § Participating nations 2
More information Olympic Games (Women's tournament) record, Team ...

Africa Cup of Nations

Main article: Africa Cup of Nations records and statistics
More information Africa Cup of Nations record, Team (Total 44 teams) ...

Women's Africa Cup of Nations

See also: Women's Africa Cup of Nations § Participating nations, and Women's Africa Cup of Nations records and statistics
More information Women's Africa Cup of Nations record, Team (Total 26 teams) ...

FIFA U-20 World Cup

Main article: FIFA U-20 World Cup records and statistics
More information FIFA U-20 World Cup record, Team ...

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

See also: FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup § Comprehensive team results in each World Cup
More information FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup record, Team ...

FIFA U-17 World Cup

Main article: FIFA U-17 World Cup records and statistics
More information FIFA U-17 World Cup record, Team ...
  • Note 1: Original hosts Peru were stripped of the rights to host the 2019 edition in February that year.[24]

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

See also: FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup § Comprehensive team results in each World Cup
More information FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup record, Team ...

FIFA Futsal World Cup

Main article: FIFA Futsal World Cup
More information FIFA Futsal World Cup record, Team ...

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Main article: FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup records and statistics
More information FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup record, Team ...

Former tournaments

FIFA Confederations Cup

Main article: FIFA Confederations Cup records and statistics
More information FIFA Confederations Cup record, Team ...

CAF Best Footballers of the Century

The voting to select the best of the century refers to three categories: male player, goalkeeper and female player and is obtained from five different steps. The resulting best players and goalkeepers were honored during the "World Football Gala 1999".[25]

More information Player, Points ...

CAF Golden Jubilee Best Players poll

In 2007, CAF published the list of top 30 African players who played in the period from 1957 to 2007, as part of the celebration of the golden jubilee or 50th anniversary of the foundation of CAF, ordered according to an online poll.[26]

01. Cameroon Roger Milla
02. Egypt Mahmoud El Khatib
03. Egypt Hossam Hassan
04. Cameroon Samuel Eto'o
05. Ghana Abedi Pele
06. Liberia George Weah
07. Ivory Coast Didier Drogba
08. Nigeria Nwankwo Kanu
09. Algeria Rabah Madjer
10. Zambia Kalusha Bwalya
11. Ghana Michael Essien
12. Nigeria Augustine Okocha
13. Egypt Saleh Selim
14. Algeria Hacène Lalmas
15. South Africa Benni McCarthy
16. Senegal El Hadji Diouf
17. Morocco Noureddine Naybet
18. Nigeria Rashidi Yekini
19. Egypt Hany Ramzy
20. Egypt Hassan Shehata
21. South Africa Lucas Radebe
22. Tunisia Tarak Dhiab
23. Morocco Mohammed Timoumi
24. Ghana Tony Yeboah
25. Mali Salif Keita
26. Ghana Karim Abdul Razak
27. Ghana Samuel Kuffour
28. Algeria Lakhdar Belloumi
29. Cameroon Rigobert Song
30. Sudan Nasr Eddin "Jaksa" Abbas

CAF resolutions

International top goalscorers

As of 26 March 2024

This table is for players with 30 or more goals for a CAF national team. Players in bold are still active at international level.

Indicates the CAF top scorer.
Indicates the top scorer of the respective nation.
More information Rank, Player ...

See also

Notes

  1. French: Confédération Africaine de Football, Arabic: الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, romanized: al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam
  2. Member of UNAF. Withdrew on 19 November 2009 and rejoined in 2011.
  3. Associate member, not part of FIFA. Zanzibar held full membership for four months in 2017, when its status was changed after CAF admitted its membership was an error.[11]
  4. Excluded from CAF and from the 1957 African Cup of Nations due to apartheid.
  5. This tournament was initially formed as a home-and-away qualification tournament for U-21 African nations in 1977. Since 1979, a proper tournament was launched as the African Youth Championship and used these branded titles until 2015: African U-21 Cup of Nations until 1989, African U-21 Championship until 2003 and African U-20 Championship until 2015. The current name was adopted in 2017.
  6. From 1995 to 2015, the tournament was known as the African U-17 Championship. The current name was adopted in 2017.
  7. Algeria gained independence in 1962, but they joined with other African nations to boycott the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Thus the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification was their first participation.
  8. Angola gained independence in 1975. Thus the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification was their first participation.
  9. The Democratic Republic of the Congo competed as Zaire in 1974.
  10. Democratic Republic of the Congo gained independence in 1960, but they joined with other African nations to boycott the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Thus the 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification was their first participation.
  11. Egypt team represented the United Arab Republic with Syria in 1960 finishing the 12th and alone in 1964 finishing the 4th.
  12. The 2020 Women's Africa Cup of Nations was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa.
  13. Costa Rica and Panama were originally due to host the 2020 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, but the latter withdrew citing the COVID-19 pandemic and left Costa Rica as the sole hosts. FIFA postponed the 2020 edition to the following year, i.e. 2021, pending improvement in pandemic management, but cancelled it altogether on 17 November 2020 due to the escalation of the pandemic caused by the discovery of the COVID-19 Omicron variant a month earlier and automatically awarded them the 2022 edition.
  14. Peru was originally due to host the 2021 FIFA U-17 World Cup but FIFA cancelled it on 24 December 2020 citing the COVID-19 pandemic and its escalation of the pandemic caused by the discovery of the COVID-19 Omicron variant a month earlier as the reasons and automatically awarded them the 2023 edition. Peru later withrew as hosts on 2 May 2023 due to infrastructural defects and FIFA awarded the hosting eights to Indonesia, whom FIFA earlier stripped the hosting rights for the year's FIFA U-20 World Cup.
  15. India were originally due to host the 2020 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, but it was postponed to the following year, i.e. 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic by FIFA, who eventually cancelled it on 17 November 2020 and rather automatically awarded them the 2022 edition.

References

  1. [1]
    "Member Associations". CAFOnline.com. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  2. [2]
    Alegi, Peter (2010). African Soccerscapes. Ohio University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-89680-278-0.
  3. [3]
    Dunmore, Tom (2011). Historical Dictionary of Soccer. p. 21. ISBN 9780810873957.
  4. [4]
    International Sport Management. Human Kinetics. 2020. ISBN 9781450422413.
  5. [5]
    "History of CAF". CAFOnline.com. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  6. [6]
    "CAF president". CAFOnline.com. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  7. [7]
    "Dr. Patrice Motsepe elected 7th CAF President unopposed in Rabat". CAFOnline.com (Press release). Archived from the original on 12 March 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  8. [8]
    "Competition for the CAF's anthem". CAFOnline.com. 18 September 2007. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2008.
  9. [9]
    FIFA
  10. [10]
    CAF
  11. [11]
    Gleeson, Mark (21 July 2017). "Zanzibar loses Caf membership in embarrassing U-turn". BBC Sport. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  12. [12]
    "Confederation Cup". CAFOnline.com. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  13. [13]
    "African women's football primed for new chapter". FIFA.com. 3 November 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
  14. [14]
    "CAF Women's Champions League takes one giant leap towards realization". CAFOnline.com. 5 July 2021. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  15. [15]
    "CAF signs sponsorship deal". BBC Sport. 21 October 2004. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  16. [16]
    "Orange signs deal to sponsor African soccer competitions". Reuters. 28 July 2009. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  17. [17]
    "CAF reviews prize money, AFCON 2017 winner to pocket $4 million". Africanews. 9 November 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  18. [18]
    "Total to sponsor CAF competitions for the next eight years". africanews. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  19. [19]
    "Total is Transforming and Becoming TotalEnergies" (Press release). TotalEnergies. 28 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  20. [20]
    "The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking". FIFA. 4 April 2024. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  21. [21]
    "The FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  22. [22]
    "African Club Ranking: Old-Time records from 1965 to 2007". CAFOnline.com. 1 May 2014. Archived from the original on 8 June 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  23. [23]
    "Futsal World Ranking". Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  24. [24]
    "Update on the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2019". FIFA.com. 22 February 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  25. [25]
    "IFFHS History : Africa – Player of the Century (1900–1999)". IFFHS. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  26. [26]
    "CAF release 30 best African players in the last 50 years". CAFOnline.com. 11 August 2007. Archived from the original on 9 March 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
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