March 20 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe has given another clear hint that he will not stand for re-election for a second term.
On the sidelines of the CAF Presidential Awards where Motsepe honoured both Rwandan autocrat Paul Kagame and the King of Morocco Mohammed XI, the African supremo told Insideworldfootball: “If you are a leader, a leader must be capable of being replaced at short notice. You don’t think about when you are going to step down, but the principle must be – if you are not there tomorrow, the organisation must continue and succeed. That is the principle.”
Following the tearing up of the billion-dollar broadcast contract with Lagardere, CAF have found themselves in deep financial problems. With small cash reserves, the confederation has been ordered to pay $50 million to the French agency. Other projects backed by the current administration such as the Super League have so far failed to take off.
“You don’t judge a leader only by what happened when he was there,” said Motsepe before referring to Nelson Mandela.
“Part of my duty is that whoever takes over from me continues and you have to assume that the person who comes after you will do an even better job than you. There are certain fundamentals that we had to introduce which were non-negotiable – governance, ethics and transparency.”
Motsepe remained mute when asked who his ideal successor would be. “You have to be able to say this is where CAF was before I arrived and I have made a humble contribution in partnership with many others,” explained the CAF boss. “You can’t do it on your own – to take it to another level.”
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I say, it is about what people experience and what their assessment is. I can say wonderful things but if the experience on the ground is something else, my remarks carry no weight.”
In 2021, Motsepe rose to power in CAF with the backing of FIFA. A South African mining magnate and billionaire, he said at the time that he would be a one-term president.
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