Meet New CAF President Patrice Motsepe: Get to Know Who He Is, His Vision and What He can Deliver to African Football

 

South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe became new president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Friday March 21, 2021.

Motsepe succeeds Malagasy Ahmad Ahmad, who is serving a two-year FIFA ban over "governance issues", and will require his vast array of business skills to fix the organisation.

The 58-year old businessman is the owner and President of the Mamelodi Sundowns club since 2003. He is the brother-in-law of President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa.

The billionaire foitball administrstor is the founder and executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals and is non-executive chairman of Harmony Gold, one of the world’s largest gold mining companies.

Motsepe has an estimated fortune of $2.1 billion and is the first black African on the Forbes list of richest man in Africa

Motsepe is the first South African to lead CAF, following in the footsteps of two Egyptians, a Sudanese, an Ethiopian, a Cameroonian and a Malagasy.

In his first address as CAF President, Dr Motsepe spoke about creating a « new CAF » that will take African football to new heights.

“I’m very excited. There is a great deal of urgency of getting things done. There is a going to be a lot of work and a lot of running. We have to make sure that African football is not just competitive but globally successful. 

Africa spends millions of dollars every year paying for tv rights of leagues outside Africa. There is a need to build our own products and we will succeed.

“The face of African football will never be the same again. 95% of our conversations will be about football and that is fine but there must be that 5% where we discuss the importance of the private sector partnerships. We need to restore the pride, the dignity and the respect of Africa,” said Motsepe.

“There is a great deal of urgency and this is something we all know. One of the things I’m going to propose is that we need to meet regularly as the Member Associates Presidents. We need to close the distance between the members and CAF. I believe we have a clear understanding of what needs to be done. At times we find fancy words to describe what needs to be done but the most important thing is implementation.”

Motsepe has committed to visiting each of the 54 Member Associates of CAF as part of a plan to understand the problems facing Member Associates and also to assist in creating better relations with the corporate world.