By Napoleon Ato Kittoe
Africa’s second-largest nation, the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, will be the focus as the delegates pour on Kinshasa for the next major meeting of the Confederation of African Football, CAF.
It is the decision of the CAF Executive Committee, EXCO, that its 46th Ordinary General Assembly takes place in the Central African nation on Thursday, October 10, 2024.
The then Zaire under the presidency of Mobutu Sesse Sekou, dominated the African Cup of Nations from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, when the football tournament was smaller, with less than 10 countries participating. Despite the beauty of Kinshasa itself, the country mirrors a paradox where poverty sits next to its vast but largely untapped resource wealth. Civil wars also held the clock of development back, and the evidence includes the absence of a road network between cities.
Often connected by makeshift boats and ferries, travels within the country are dogged by disasters. The choice of Kinshasa would be consistent with CAF’s respect for all African countries and its avowed aim to show a presence in each of them when necessary.
Morocco, on the other hand, has seen major advancements in development and has become a tourist haven in both Africa and the Arab world. In making the formal announcement that Morocco would host biennial football events, CAF thanked the King of Morocco, His Royal Majesty King Mohammed VI, for the decision to host both men’s and women’s football, commonly referred to as AFCON and WAFCON, in 2024 and 2025, respectively. The headline sponsor of the tournaments is TotalEnergies.
The President of Moroccan Football, Mr Fouzi Lekjaa, assured CAF that his country would make available the best conditions to host Africa and the rest of the world. The confident Lekjaa has a basis for this assurance because Morocco, having made a bid for the soccer World Cup on many occasions, boasts world-class infrastructure and a people most fanatical of the sport.