CAF To Continue Talks With ECA
The Confederation of African Football, CAF, will continue talks with the European Clubs Association, ECA. The ECA has been very vocal in the past about the release of European-based African players for the Africa Cup of Nations during the season. CAF president, Patrice Motsepe attended the ECA conference last week with his Secretary-General to engage the association over several issues.
“CAF is committed to cooperate and work together with the ECA, UEFA, and other football confederations and organisations to develop and promote football globally and to build mutually beneficial relationships,” Motsepe said in a statement released by CAF.
The ECA’s stance on the Africa Cup of Nations being staged in January is well publicised. Statements from the association before the start of the last Africa Cup of Nations did not approve of footballers going to play for their native lands in the middle of the European season.
Motsepe attending the ECA conference with Secretary-General Veron Mosengo-Omba shows how seriously CAF is taking engagements with the association. Mosengo-Omba has been tasked with continuing talks with the ECA.
“I have requested the CAF General-Secretary to continue discussions with the ECA and football confederations and organisations in this regard,” read the statement from CAF.
Although the statement does not mention the Africa Cup of Nations, it is highly likely that most of the talking will be around the staging of the 2023 tournament in January 2024. The tournament was moved from June 2023 on the advice of weather experts as the Ivory Coast experiences very high rainfall in the month of June.
