CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe media briefing - 22 July 2026

Thank you. Let me start by expressing my personal deep gratitude to all of you, to the media, local media, global media. We'll talk a little bit towards the end about some of the COSAFA and Southern African issues, but we focus mainly on the performances of the African national teams at the FIFA World Cup. And I think that will take about 90% of the press conference and the remaining 10% will be to deal with various other important initiatives. We've prepared a media statement or a press statement that will be released to you as soon as I have highlighted some of the issues, and then as usual we'll take questions. Let me once more just express my deep gratitude to the president of COSAFA for being here. The president of SAFA is with us and of course all our partners, channel now, can yes, can channel IMG and various others and what COSAFA as well. Oh okay I thought you meant COSAFA. And as I say, thank you very much to the media and we've got some of our beautiful fans and look at the most wonderful football supporter on the continent who makes us very proud, and I see is a blanky there at the back is becoming younger and younger. So good. And I just once want to express our deep gratitude to the media for the good work they are doing and also asking questions and sometimes they have to ask difficult questions which are very important. We have a duty to respond to those questions as best we do. I'm very proud of the media in South Africa on the continent and the media has a very unique role to play of course in football but also have a broader role.

Now I'll spend a few minutes talking about some of the important observations, and as I said, usually we create opportunities for questions. If you look at the press statement as I said that we will circulate, there are three or four issues that are very important. The first is to look at the performance of the 10 national teams in the FIFA World Cup. We're very proud. I'm very proud. African football is very proud. They did very well. We set very high standards for ourselves. We've got very high expectations. Our clear objective, and we are now more confident than ever before coming from the FIFA World Cup, is to see an African nation becoming champions of the world. I'm more convinced than ever before that that can indeed happen. Life doesn't allow for dreams or plans or expectations which are out of touch with reality. You've got to look at the facts at all times. And at the end of the day, I come from a business background and my shareholders always say to me, 'Where are the dividends? Where are the profits? Where's the money?' And you can give all sorts of wonderful explanations. At the end of the day, if there's no dividends and you can't give the people who've given you their money to make returns and to make money for them, you've got a big challenge. So we've got a clear expectation that until we have that trophy on the African continent, and you can see we came very close. If you look at some of our top national teams, I had the privilege of talking with some of the most experienced, most respected coaches in the world. And sometimes it's important for me to listen more than express my opinions. And one of the common features is that many of our national teams in Africa, their performances reflect that they are as good as the best in the world. Look at what happened between Egypt and Argentina. Look at what happened between Cabo Verde. And they said to me the population of Cabo Verde, I had my own number and some people said it's 10 million. Now I don't know how they get to 10 million. It's more like 600,000. That shows that with absolute commitment, investment, training in the youth, and of course unity is also important for us. It's important that we increase the cooperation with our governments on the African continent in each of the 54 countries in Africa. We also increase our partnerships with the private sector because an important ingredient for success is financial sustainability. It's financial independence. The most successful football nations not just in Africa but in the world have a consistent, reliable, predictable support from the government but also from the private sector. And I'm confident that we are making significant progress. It would have been so much more beautiful. We did very well, but as I said, it's like many years ago when my son came to me and said, 'Daddy, I got 60% in an exam and I did very well.' I said, 'Did you say 60? Where's the other 40%? What happened to it?' And he said, 'Yeah, but you know, my friends got 55%.' You don't compare yourself with your friends who get 55. You compare yourself with those who got 85, 90.

So part of my job, part of the jobs of every president in every one of the 54 countries in Africa, the football federation or the football president is to continuously give hope, give confidence, give inspiration, give encouragement. And you know, people sometimes are not certain, but when they see the success and when they see the consistent success, they then become significantly more confident. Bafana Bafana played very well. Senegal played very well. I can say Ghana played very well. Algeria, the two nations that did exceptionally well from an African perspective, and it's purely based on the results, is Egypt and Morocco. The results speak for themselves. But I'm in South Africa and I'm going to give the message that I give in South Africa, which is the same message I would give in every one of the 54 countries on the continent. I'm very proud of Nigeria. Nigeria, Cameroon. I can say the same about every one of the 54 nations. Nigeria didn't make it now. And I keep telling my Nigerian friends, you know, a World Cup for me without Nigeria, without Cameroon and many others is incomplete because Nigeria has always made us proud. Cameroon, many many others. And part of what we are going to do now is to work harder than we've ever done before. Because in life, if you work hard and you are determined, you succeed. You may not succeed immediately. You may not succeed overnight. In fact, you seldom succeed overnight. You seldom succeed immediately. So I'm enormously confident. And as I have to emphasize, I cannot have confidence that's based in the air without some quantifiable, accessible, objective criteria and facts that justify that optimism. One of the objectives of South Africa has to be at the next FIFA World Cup, we're going to go to the semi-finals at least or the finals. You can do that. You can do that. And the same applies to every one of the 10 nations. Morocco went to the quarterfinals. We're very proud of Morocco because the success, and we're very proud of Egypt and we're very proud of every single one of the 10 nations that went to the World Cup. Enormously proud of the success of any single national team at the World Cup because the FIFA World Cup is the highest in the world. It is something that all of us should be proud of because if any single country goes to the semi-finals or finals or quarterfinals, they uplift the global respect and recognition of African football. So we are going to host a meeting. I'm told that Cabo Verde and some other countries want to host that meeting where we are going to invite all of the coaches of the national teams that participated in the FIFA World Cup and others. And we're going to invite football experts, former legends on the continent, the smartest, the brightest who've played at the highest levels in the world. And the purpose of that meeting is to talk about: what can we do better? What do we learn from our performances in America, Canada, and Mexico? Where is the room for improvement? Because we're very clear, and this is a different clarity in our mind because it's a clarity that's backed up by results. Ghana played well, Côte d'Ivoire played well, Algeria, I mean as I said, every single one of them.

But we've got a clear plan. We've got an AFCON next year. Next year will be in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda. I'll talk about that enormous progress, and that is the flagship competition on the African continent. But we know that we've got players that are as good as the best in the world. You know, when we grew up, I sometimes ask myself, why do I love football so much? And I think part of the explanation is when I was 5 years old, they sent me to a Catholic mission boarding school very far away from home, and we used to spend 9 to 10 months in a year. Now when you send a 5-year-old and he spends 9 to 10 months in the Eastern Cape in a place called Elliot, the only thing we had was football. So at age six and age five, we missed our parents but we had football, and that inspired us. It sort of took our minds away from missing everybody at home. And I am no different from millions and millions of young South Africans. I must say I sometimes get a bit jealous when I look at the rugby. The rugby is doing well but they've got money. And you can't meaningfully succeed without giving confidence to the private sector. And I must say I'm very proud of the work that Gayton is doing, our minister of sports. Very proud, enthusiasm, passion. Also put some money, but we must get also more of the private sector, the banks, the mines, and not just in South Africa, on the rest of the continent. So the message is from me and from CAF and from African football: enormously positive. Let me tell you something else. If you look at the percentage of African clubs at the FIFA World Cup who qualified from the group stages to the round of 32, it's the highest in the history of African football at the World Cup. The stats speak for themselves. We had 10 national teams. 90% of them qualified from the group stages to the round of 32. The highest ever. The second highest we ever had in the history of African football was in 2022 when we had 40% qualifying from the group stages to the knockout stages, which is the same as the round of 32 today. In 2018, no African national team qualified from the group stages to the knockout stages. In 2014, we had 40%. So the facts speak for themselves. And let me tell you something else. The only other confederation that did better than us is Europe. You know, Europe had 40% in the next stage. It's all in the document that we'll circulate. But so there's a reason why we have to be optimistic and there's a reason why we now more than ever before must be totally determined that we're going to do better starting today. I'm a bit disappointed at times when I am told that the schools football in South Africa is not doing as well as it should. I think that's incorrect. It's factually incorrect. The facts are we had about 8,000 schools. The Motsepe Foundation is sponsoring the Motsepe Schools Football in South Africa. We had about 8,000, and I grew up watching. The first time I got exposed to Kaizer, at the back of my mind was when he came to my father's school. I was a very young boy, many many too young, and he was playing for Orlando High. So when the Motsepe Foundation donated $10 million to the African schools championship, and we've had more than a million young boys and girls, more than 30,000 schools in Africa participating in the African schools national championship. It's because I don't want to say the next Messi or the next Ronaldo because I like them and I'm proud of them, but the next P, the next J, the next Hakim, the next Salah is in a village on the continent.

Let's tell him there's a good future in football. You know, encourage his parents. I was shown Lamine Yamal when Messi was showering him, giving him a shower. Now, Africans have got all sorts of explanations that are not, it confuses people, guys. Just listen. So when Lamine Yamal's father is from Morocco and his mother is from Guinea Conakry, from Africa. Father from Cameroon, mother from Algeria. We have the talent. I don't like chasing a ship or a train that I cannot catch. I like chasing a ship or a train that I know I'll get inside. So the talent is there. Enormous talent. Troba eto. The list goes on. I shouldn't mention names of young football players in South Africa because I love, we love all of them. So we have to leave this meeting with a sense of enormous optimism but also with a sense of enormous determination more than ever before in every one of the 54 countries on the continent, in every one of the 54 member associations to say: the conclusion we have drawn from the FIFA World Cup 2026 is we've done very well, but the performances of the African national teams there have shown us. I mean, Egypt was winning, was leading two zero against Argentina, and I kept hugging the president of Egypt. Hey, he was sitting there. He says, 'Patrice, please, let's you know, you and I know that there's still 15 minutes left.' But I must say something else. I don't want to mention names of the top coaches in the world who said you've got to be careful because you cannot win yourself into success by defending all the time. The best defense is to attack. If you just wait for them to keep coming at you, they'll keep coming at you. You saw how the goal that they got when Argentina played against England. I had the president of the United Kingdom of the English national team sitting next to me, and somebody I don't want to mention his name, one of the most respected coaches in the world, said, 'Don't defend, don't defend, or not not don't defend, defend but attack.' Because if you... So I imagine these are some of the things that we are going to hear at this big conference that we are going to host very soon, and it's going to be an open conference, and the agenda is very simple: What do we learn from the performances of the national teams at the FIFA World Cup? What can we do better? What were some of the areas for improvement? What were the areas where we should take pride and take confidence from? So we live in an era, not just in football but in society, where it's important to keep looking at the positive, the optimistic, that which encourages. There's always things that will discourage you. There'll always be weaknesses and failures. That's life. But we should spend more than 80 or 90% on the positive, on the good. Take inspiration from that. We are a great continent. Every single one of the 54 nations in Africa has got exceptional football talent. We can do much much better, and we will do much much better. And the objective that we've set of an African national team being champions of the world, I have no doubt that we will see it.

I mean, I would not have gotten into football, would not have agreed to be president of CAF as much as I deeply love football if it wasn't also about the recognition of the enormous power of football to unite our people, to bring our people together. When I went to Nigeria, I was told when the national team plays, there's nobody from the north, there's nobody from the south. We're all Nigerians. Beautiful. There's no Christian, there's no Muslim. We are all Nigerian. Absolutely beautiful. I went to Côte d'Ivoire and they were talking about the problems they had during the years of civil war, and also not just in Côte d'Ivoire but other parts of the continent where there are issues of ethnicity, where ethnic divisions is used as a means to divide, but when somebody from another tribe comes from our country and plays football, we embrace him. This is beautiful. So in Côte d'Ivoire, all people from different ethnic backgrounds, even in the middle of the civil war, come together and support the national team. Now talking about South Africa, it's always important that there's a clear understanding that my commitment and my obligation is equal to every one of the 54 nations, and what I say about South Africa applies to what I said in Namibia and other parts of the country where we must all work together to increase the cooperation and the unity amongst all football stakeholders. It's very very important. We need each other. None of us can succeed whether it's in football or outside football on their own. And this is part of my job on the continent. We've done exceptional. I mean, there were some presidents, some heads of states on the African continent I've known for many many years, and I'll go and sit with him and he'll say to me, 'How you see, my brother Patrice, the football president belongs to the opposition and they always vote against me, I don't want to see him.' I said, 'No no no, just bring him closer, let's use football to unite our people. Maybe he might just, I can't say he might support you. If it does, that's fine. But the more you reach out to people, and more often you've got to reach out to people who disagree with you and sometimes are even totally opposed to you, more often than not we come together and succeed.' So I'm very confident that we will make enormous progress in South Africa because I sometimes see what's in the media and I'm confident, enormously confident, and it's the same message I've given to many other parts of the continent. So I don't like reading press statements. I'm very hopeless in reading press statements. What I'm going to do is I'm going to ask them, you've got copies of your day. Okay. Whilst I talk, they will circulate the press statement. You see, he pays my salary and this, you know, I get almost a million dollars every year from FIFA and CAF, and we donate that money back to football because for us as a family, football is part of our philanthropic obligations. We've always identified football as a means to give back to the people of this country and the continent who've made us what we are. Now, just before I listen to what he says, I just want to make sure, do you remember the goalkeeper of Cabo Verde, superstar? So he came to me, there was some event that we were hosting and we had all of these heads of state, and very proud, made me very proud, made the continent very proud. I mean, just think about it. 500,000 people can produce football players that draws basically draws with the champions of the world. The population of South Africa is what?

Let me just see before they circulate this. I will be leaving South Africa on Saturday to go to Morocco for the women's what they call the WAFCON, and we have increased the prize money of the women's WAFCON. Now they gave me some, I almost said some crazy numbers but some very high numbers. They said to me that since the new leadership, since I became president, and the people who've been working, the people that I've had the honor to work with, remember no leader succeeds on his own in anything, and the credit should not go to the leader, the credit goes to the people that he or she has the privilege to work with. So people say all these wonderful things about the things I've done in CAF. I would, you know, I think give credit to the presidents of the 54 African member associations. Give credit to my vice presidents. Give credit to the EXCO because we did it together. My pilots were complaining in America. They said to me, 'But you realize that every day we have to get on the plane and fly to Mexico and fly to Canada and fly to LA and fly to New York. If you are crazy and you work hard, we need to sleep.' I said, 'But you don't play games with pilots because it's not like a taxi when I drive and if I sleep, somebody can wake me up. If the pilots don't wake up, I might wake up in Ukraine or something.' So. But I was honored. I attended every, part of my commitment was to attend at least one match of every one of the 10. I love it. So I attended at least one match of every one of the 10, and I attended more matches from some of the other countries, African countries, and then of course I went to the other matches as well. But as I said, we always look at football. I mean, just think, I stood there in America and watched in the stadiums when the DRC was playing, and you see the excitement of the people from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Beautiful country, but like many other of our countries, lots of challenges, but they come together. I went to Côte d'Ivoire and you see people, of course you see people from the continent which is beautiful and encouraging, but you also see people from America, from Brazil, they call it Brazil, they say we mustn't say Brazil, it's Brazil. Brazil, I like it. And you see people from Europe, from South America, from Asia, the enormous power of football to bring our people together. I mean, I'm part of that generation that we've got broader duties and broader obligation. When you wake up, when you grow up, your parents say, 'Go and get a degree. Get the degree.' Of course. And then your mother says, 'You'd better make sure you've got money because no girl will look at you if you are, if you can't look after her children.' She says, 'Yana, I like him, but this one, he can't even support himself.' So then you try and say okay let me try and make sure that financially I'm independent. But for me it was different because I came from a family where my father was, we were a successful family, we had businesses. So money for me was never, I never did things for money from a young stage because I grew up in an environment where we saw where my parents did well. So in business, of course, my shareholders mustn't hear me say that because they are clear: please make money for us. If you don't make money for us, don't waste our time. So we have to compete and consistently make money for ourselves. But the point I'm making is that we've always looked at football similar to money. Money is important, but money doesn't, I shouldn't, I almost said money doesn't give you happiness. I was talking at the school, at the university with some young students and I said, 'Hey man, the importance of money is exaggerated. Money doesn't give you happiness.' One young girl said, 'Please give me money. I'll show you what happiness looks like. Just give me money and I'll show you what happiness looks like.' Happiness again. But I'm saying this in the context that all of us, we talk about football, we absolutely love football, and have to see football as well in its context. Look at Shaba Chabala. Football gave him a future, gave him a career. And that's what we love. Every young boy and girl on the continent, we want to say to them, there's a bright future in football. When we grew up, you hear that your aunt's daughter, her boyfriend is a football player, but this is many years ago because they thought there was no money in football. Now it's opposite. You marry because you love somebody and you can have a good future in football. Now we have increased the prize money of the WAFCON by 900%. It's unbelievable.

900% for the women. And that's why I say, you know, you can make all sorts of promises and say all of these nice things if you don't back them up with quantifiable, visible, and as they would say, touchable. They want to feel it, want to touch it. So we've increased the prize money by 900%. Last year when I became president, the winner of the women's competition got $200,000, and then we got it to $1 million. Now they get $2 million. So we've increased the prize money for the winner by 100%. We've increased the overall money. So the winner gets $2 million, which has been increased enormously, and you'll get it. Don't worry, you'll get it in the document. But we've also increased by 495%. When we, the current leadership, got into football, the total money that was spent for women's football on the continent was $975,000. Now it's close to $6 million. And there's still a lot more that we have to do. Two final points before I take questions. The AFCON in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda is going to be enormously successful. There's no World Cup. I mean, when I went to the World Cup in 2014 to Brazil, and there was an opening match, some of the leaders there said to me, 'Sorry, do you see that some parts of the stadium were not complete? They were not 100% ready.' So, and of course, when I became president of CAF, they said, 'Take the AFCON away from Cameroon.' And I could never allow that because we have to have confidence in our people despite the challenges, despite, and sometimes there'll be failures as well. We just try again. So the AFCON in East Africa is going to be enormously successful. There are some challenges, but I'm proud of the work that the heads of state of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda are doing. And so I'll see all of you next year for the AFCON in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda. Two quick points. We've opened the bids for AFCON 2028, AFCON 2032, and AFCON 2036. I will have gone long by then because I was supposed to be president only for one term. And when they said to me that if you leave, all the money we promised for CAF will leave with you. I thought, you know, we've made too many sacrifices to not allow the good work that we've done to be implemented. And part of my job also to make sure that there are good leaders, and there are good leaders who will not only take over from me but also continue the good work that we've started. And I saw Denny South Africa and Botswana and others and met various others.

We've received exciting exciting bids, and then of course the member associations came to me and said, 'But president, you see if you increase the number of participating teams from 24 to 28, it's going to make it difficult for us to participate. I mean, you have emphasized that you want every zone to host the AFCON.' It's because I've seen what the AFCON does. I mean, when the presidents of football in the country say to me, 'My government has never taken me so serious. They've never allocated so much money to building the stadiums. They've never made so much money available for hotels, for hospitals. They've never encouraged the private sector to support professional football.' We have to support professional football. It's the backbone as well as amateur football, but we have to support professional football in every one of the 54 countries on the continent. And tell the private sector, you know, give them money, invest. You will make more money as the businesses that support because our people love companies that are there where our people are. So I'm very excited about the proposals we've received. We will make announcements. And another very exciting thing is the invitation to tender African football because of governance, because of ethics, because of transparency, because of auditing practices, the private sector wants to support us because they know if they put money into football, it doesn't go into pockets that it's not supposed to go to. It goes to development for young boys and girls, amateur football, support the football federation, support the professional soccer leagues. So we've had a number of enormously exciting, some of the biggest international marketing and agency companies that want to partner with CAF for our commercial rights, TV rights, hospitality. And this is part of the $1 million plan that I've discussed to ensure that every member association gets at least a million dollars from CAF, and that money must go to the member association to develop and grow football. Just before I go to the, my apologies, just before I make one final remark, I want to thank Gianni Infantino for the excellent work that he's done and thank FIFA. Thank Matias for hosting what was the most successful FIFA World Cup in the history of the competition. And they did good work. I'm very proud. And what Gianni has done is to contribute to us increasing the number of African national teams. Enormously important. We have to be smart in Africa. We need partners. We've got to work together with the other confederations. It's very important because at times when we need their votes. So we need friends. We need good partnerships, good relationships. We've got a very good agreement with UEFA to work together on areas where we can develop and grow football. They say that they learn from us. We definitely learn from them as much as we learn from CONMEBOL and from Asia. We've got good ties with CONMEBOL, with Asia, Oceania, and CAF, and of course FIFA is our mother body. Very very proud. And that's why we as Africa, and I personally, Gianni has been loyal. Gianni Infantino has been loyal to Africa, he's been loyal to me, so whoever takes over from, I'm for it.

Let me say it in English. You have to have partners. You need to have a president of FIFA who is as committed to African development and growth as Gianni Infantino is. You need that. And then you need to work with others as well, with other confederations for the success of football in the world because we also need football to develop and grow on the African continent. We're going to meet in Abuja in Nigeria for the ordinary general assembly in November. Nigeria is a proud football nation and there's a reason why I took it to Nigeria and there's a reason why I'm looking at some of the countries in Africa because we have to do something very special in everyone of the 54 countries on the continent as much as we have to do something special in South Africa, in Kenya, in Cameroon, in all over the continent. Okay. I think we can go home now. Uh please no political questions.

All right. So they will now circulate because the political questions are boring. I think you are as bored as I am. I mean when my shareholders ask me political questions, I have no choice. I'm going to answer them. I sometimes start thinking to myself, I don't think I'm doing a good job because they keep asking these things. So we've agreed no political questions. We can and of course I don't know what other club is one. And we love Golden Arrows. I like Al Ahly and then I must quickly say I like Zamalek and Pyramids as well. I like every single one of the 13 rollers. I love all the wonderful teams from all over the country all over the continent. Okay. So give the we can circulate the and Golden Arrows I love as well which is a team from Cape Town now.

Yeah, oh just I will be in on Saturday Saturday night I fly out to Morocco but I'll be at Jaden Adams's funeral to express my personal condolences. I mean really it's there are certain things I'm weak at. You know when you hear these things oh gosh it's very painful but we'll be there to pay our respects and give support to the family and to all our young people in the country to say we are there with you. You're going to circulate.

100%. So we'll circulate and then you can read it and then you can ask questions and just in conclusion, thank you so very much for all of you being here and we are going to do great things together. We're going to do great things together. We have the capacity to do great things to make African football amongst the best in the world. Can we clap hands for everybody who's here, please? Okay. So, who's going to circulate the press statement?

Brilliant, brilliant question Mark. Very good question. And that's why the media is so critically important because whether it's in business or football or even in church or in politics and in the economy it's important that you ask these questions. We have a duty to answer them as best we can because we also have a duty to report to the hundreds of millions of football spectators and fans on the continent. I must say I was very emotional when I heard what the Somali referee Omar said to me and I was also emotional but he was excited because we said to him you are now going to be the referee of the biggest club competition in Europe. And I really want to thank Sepp Blatter and the UEFA for the discussions and for this opportunity. I'm clear in my mind because the issue of the circumstances under which a country either allows somebody to come in or not to come in. We've had lots of those challenges. We had the same challenges in other countries on the continent in football and there it's a sovereign issue. They've got their laws and their requirements. My job and my duties is to make sure that we are there to support the Somali referee Omar and he's our best we gave him an award as our best referee on the continent. We are proud of him and we will keep on supporting him and all the other referees. Talking about Gianni Infantino, you know what is more important is what we discuss in private and it's important for me to always look at the heart of a person. We are all human, we all have weaknesses and frailties and we all make mistakes and I think I make more mistakes than anybody else but what I like is the deep love for football, the deep commitment to football in the world by Gianni, the support for Africa and we did that. Some of the issues that we have discussed including some of the issues that you have raised and I'm satisfied that he has always shown the deepest commitment. You know, there are rules in FIFA and we all have to respect those rules. I was laughing when he said that sometimes the FIFA judicial bodies makes decisions that he doesn't like. I thought he got that from me because the CAF judicial bodies sometimes take decisions that I don't like at all. But I've got to keep quiet and support them because their independence is critically important. And they have to know that they must take decisions that has got nothing to do with whether the president of football supports or don't support. And the people in FIFA who took the decisions you refer to. I've been exposed to you know you see the CVs there some people there with enormous integrity and I think the issue for us now is to make sure that because public perception is everything for all of us. You know, I can stand as a president of CAF. I mean, let me give you another example: the AFCON every four years. Now, I know that I'm giving them the same AFCON as it is now, every two years, identical, but I'm doing something else and giving them something different every four years. But it doesn't matter what I say. And this is the point you made Mark, very important. It's what ordinary football people and not just football people and non-football people on the continent what their perception is of what we do and it's important that CAF and I know that FIFA as well we're all committed to make sure that in the minds and in the perspectives of ordinary people in Africa and worldwide we are seen as an organization that upholds governance and ethics at the highest levels. I'm going to be more brief because that's a very important question you ask and I had to try and give as much explanation as possible. So the next questions the answer is going to be yes no yes no.

Yeah. I hope you are happy with what I said.

What do you want me to say?

Expand. I've expanded as much as I can.

Let me be more direct.

Decisions of this nature have to be looked at by EXCO and EXCO has to take the decision and we have a duty to look at every proposal that we receive. So the secretary general is not here that proposal will be submitted to EXCO to look at and to take decisions based on what's in the best interest of football. It's our duty to do that. Thank you very much. Next question. Bali.

Very good question Bali. Very good question. Um...

We the process is now before CAS and whatever decision CAS takes we will respect and implement. I mean look at what happened at the World Cup decisions that referees takes there's always a contestation. What we have to do is to learn from what happened and we have already passed laws to make sure that what happened in Morocco never happens again and also keep engaging with the referees and match commissioners to make sure that the rules and the laws are very clear because at the end of the day what again what ordinary football people think on the continent about the results is critically important. The integrity of the decisions that are taken and there must always be a clear perception that you win because you're the best. You don't win because the referee takes decisions that are questionable or the questionable VAR decisions that are taken. So I'm very happy. We've had lots of discussions and I'm told that what I said was I'm sick and tired of answering the same question. It's not totally correct. What I actually meant was I think people are sick and tired and so am I by giving you the same answer all the time. And the same answer says you know I go to at the World Cup people from Senegal said president please leave the trophy where it is. people from Morocco says president you know the decision was taken in our favor and the point is I always have to give the same answer which is I have to wait for the decision of CAS. I can't give you any other decision or any other response. There's nothing I can do legally ethically. I have to comply with the rules and regulation the statutes of CAF and FIFA and those are I have to wait for the conclusion and then implement it. So I said I'm sick and tired of telling you I have to wait I have to wait for CAS and I thought that you must always also be sick and tired of hearing me saying the same thing to you but thank you very much excellent question. Okay, we go to you and then afterwards we come this side and then I'll go back that side. I have to go to him and then afterwards Timber and Ml and then Gar you'll be next.

Brilliant question. Brilliant question. I think part of how you do better or how you move in the right direction of success is to recognize the weaknesses and things you can deal with differently and better. Let me tell you, we gave the AFCON to Morocco and when there were matters concerning the hosting of the AFCON, I received many other proposals from other countries who said bring the WFCON to us. Bring the WFCON to us and we have to behave in a manner that is ethical and principled. It would have been incorrect to take it away from Morocco because when we had opened the tender and said come anybody wants to host because I'm clear in my mind I want the competitions I want every zone and as many countries as possible to host these competitions. So when there were these challenges, we had to engage to make sure that we maintain the ethics, the mutual respect, and the mutual trust. And could we have done better? Absolutely. But we did the right thing by not having it. It was supposed to be in February. The same thing with the CHAN in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda. It was supposed to take place last year in February. They were not ready. I could have taken it away from them, but that would have been the wrong thing to do. And we had to be there to support and work together. They spent so much more money between February and August last year to have this big competition in those three countries and we've benefited immensely. We've learned as well, but it gave us a prelude to what we should do and the challenges we might be confronted with next year in June, July. So I'm very happy and we are all in CAF very happy and excited that we've done the right thing. Besides if we had it in February we wouldn't have been able to significantly increase the prize money as we have now and get lots of focus. Women's football is crucial and you know it should not just be we shouldn't pay lip service to women's football. We should do more than pay lip service and a 900% increase in the money we are allocating to women's football is a substantial expression of confidence and commitment. But thank you for the question. If I might go to the WhatsApp questions from international journalist one is from Mauritania Ahmed Lam from Mauritania. He writes, "Mr. President, African referees officiated only in 11 out of the 104 matches at the World Cup, raising concerns about the treatment of African referees. How do you respond to this and how can we ensure that more African referees are officiating top match?"

Very good question. Obviously, I want as many African referees as possible to be at the World Cup and to officiate as many matches as possible and we will continue the discussions and the engagement with FIFA and with Pier Luigi who I think does very good work and is very committed and passionate and I've had that question asked and raised by many people and I can assure you that those matters have been discussed and I'm confident that there will be significantly more African referees and part of that is to continue to work together between CAF and FIFA to keep training, keep supporting, keep uplifting the standards and qualities of African referees. African referees are as good as the best in the world. My apologies. They're as good as the best in the world and we've got lots of confidence in them and they should be there at the highest level in the world. Of course, if an African nation is in the final, we will not have an African referee there, but I want both. Let's have the African referee. We want to see African referees as many of them at the highest level at FIFA competitions. Next.

Absolutely. You see, I have to guard jealously the quality and the global competitiveness of our club football competitions and our national team competitions. And that's why we've allocated I mean, you know, when I became president, CAF was in debt to the amount of $150 million. We owed $150 million. We now have $150 million in our bank account. But be careful, that money is not supposed to sit in our bank accounts. It's supposed to consistently be allocated to the member associations, to football for boys and girls, to training of referees and coaches, and so you will see from our financial statements we keep as little money as possible on our balance sheet because the money is not supposed to be in our bank account. It's supposed to be used and spent on the ground. So the performances of the African national teams at the FIFA World Cup reflects that the quality of African football. Look, Egypt was winning 2-0 against Argentina. Cabo Verde drew with the champions. And he's from Nigeria. Nigeria has got some of the best players not just in Africa but in the world and I'm confident Nigeria will continue to make us proud as it did in the past. Same Cameroon and same Bafana Bafana and every one of the 54 African national teams.

I like the message of good luck. You know, I remember when I was a student at Wits and Dalim Pule always reminds me of this and we were marching against the government against a party and we were fighting and we said you know they can hit us and we will keep fighting. And then the police were standing outside Wits and they had such big sticks you know and we were debating should we continue with the march and one guy from KwaZulu-Natal said guys let us just pray and go home you know because if we keep marching they're going to hit us so hard and then of course there were those like both who said no no no we have to go on. So going to the issue of South Africa. Again, we've got to keep giving positive messages and it's very clear we have to unite to keep South African football together united both within SAFA and as well as the relationship between SAFA and the PSL. Very very important. And you said something very important. CAF will be there to support as well as FIFA to make sure that the processes are in compliance with the CAF and FIFA statutes and regulations. But what the president of CAF cannot do is to say I like Lux but I don't like John. You don't do that. I had the same problem in Côte d'Ivoire when Drogba wanted to stand as president of the football league in Ivory Coast. I like Drogba, made us proud as much as I like all the football players we're all proud of them but I had to tell a meeting where there were many many more people than what is in this room that my job is to support and make sure it's all done in a manner that's legal and ethical and to make sure that the candidate that wins is the one that enjoys the support of football in the country. But we should not listen. I know Danny is somebody I've known. I like him. I know Sandile. Sandile was my secretary general when I was president of black business and I was given the job to say you have to unite black and white businesses. Big big challenge. And so Danny will phone me and say whatever he wants. Sandile will phone me and say whatever he likes. But I think there's a clear understanding that as a president of CAF I have to maintain a position of impartiality and neutrality. But having said that I have a big stake like all of us. This country has got enormous potential. Enormous potential. Enormous potential. You know, this country can produce the national team that will be in the not just the semi-finals in the finals of the FIFA World Cup. Can do that. It won't happen overnight. But it starts with everybody working together. Dr. because he's an old old he keeps telling me that he is implementing my father's agenda in football. So I said but if you are implementing my father's agenda in football what agenda am I implementing? But you know we ask now so of course I know I was born in Orlando. So if you were born in Orlando, you had no choice. They said you will support Pirates whether you like it or not. And then of course we got exposed to Kaizer Chiefs as young boys from the family. Love Kaizer Chiefs. Love Orlando Pirates. Love Mamelodi Sundowns and all the others. So I'm confident that the process will be in a manner that's appropriate. That's our job to also supervise that and a decision will be taken that's in the interest of football and we will work together and support whichever candidate has been chosen by the leadership of football in the country. Okay.

Well let me say this. CNN asked me now don't clap hands for that. I mean, CNN asked me along the same line of questions that you did and my answer is very simple. South Africa does not need me to go into politics. There are many very capable, very good leaders in this country. I don't want to mention names. I've had the enormous privilege. The only problem I have is I'm not part of any group. And that's why even some of the friends who are my friends say things which are not flattering because somebody said to them that somebody might persuade me to change my view. But that's still my brothers man. And I understand why they say so or why they make these statements because they've got a lot at stake in the context of the group that they belong to and they need that group to succeed. I understand that. But no person is indispensable. I mean, I've had the privilege of leading black business. I don't know, we united black and white business and you actually judge a leader by not how good things were when he was there or she was there, but what happened when they've gone. And this is the issue that I'm applying my mind to now within CAF. I deeply love this country and I deeply love the people of this country and I have the privilege of doing the things where I think I can make a contribution. I mean this thing about FIFA, let me rather say I've said on many occasions FIFA doesn't listen. I love FIFA. Huge enormous contribution that FIFA does but I have no desire or ambition to be president of FIFA. It doesn't excite me. My iPhone lights up at 3:00 in the morning and tell him about something I should have told him last week which I thought of at 3:00 in the morning but because I didn't phone him at 3:00 I forgot. But also this country has got good people, many good people. We shouldn't only focus on our failures and deficiencies and there are many of them but there's so much that we should take confidence from and be proud of. And the religious leaders I have the privilege of interacting with because values and what you believe in and what you stand for is very important and the traditional leaders, the kings, and also all political parties, every single political party I don't want to mention names, the people I've had the honor to interact with. And it's easy for me, I mean I can stand by the sideline and say that it's like football for example when they came to me and said we want you to consider being president of CAF, one of the leaders said it doesn't even come to meetings of the football board of governors because I don't need to go there because you've got Irvin Khoza and Dr. Khoza, Dr. Muthambi, people I love, I've got a long history with both of them, and various others. Good work and the work that has been done in SAFA under Danny and various others. Let's look at the good. You will always find things to criticize because it's society. But I want to conclude by saying that my biggest contribution is when I have the capacity to keep engaging as I'm privileged to with all leaders of all political parties because no political party can take this country forward on its own. The voters have shown us that. So let's think about the poor. Let's focus on the poor and the unemployed and we will all do much better. Let's go back to football now.

Yeah. Let's get parents, man. Come on. Yeah, because I see even those who compete with you clap softly. But you see they, this is the point. There are certain things we cannot do immediately but there are so many things we can do and sometimes we don't even recognize it. So you must talk to Lux. I can tell you CAF has got enormous infrastructure networks but they don't use those networks and those partnerships with business to the benefit of young leaders like yourself and others. You know, my brother there who spoke earlier and thank you so much for your wonderful remarks. The point I was going to make is that partnerships are very important. When I went into the mining business, one of the things I was clear about, I mean, more than I don't know 35 years ago or what was to partner with the best in anything you do, partner with the best. So whether you know in the businesses that we are involved in as a family, we partner with the best because we learn.

Good question, very good question.

Brilliant. No, we didn't put in the press statement there's discussion to allow you when you come in one country, you can go to all three. And let me correct this. The fact that we respect the sovereignty of every nation in terms of their decision of who comes in and who doesn't come in doesn't mean that we don't engage with them. We have to, and we engaged with them with the objective of saying make it as easy as possible. I mean when you went to Qatar, I'm told that if you show them you had a ticket, that was your passport. So I'm very proud of those heads of state of those three countries because Madame Sunsulu, President R, and President Museveni have deep commitment and excitement to make sure that the Afcon is enormously successful. I mean the president of football in Uganda said to me, we have never had so many people visit Uganda as what happened last year during the football competition called the Chan. So immediately the country sees wow, the hotels are full, the airplanes are full, people buy food, the restaurants are full. I don't want the hospitals to be full. But there's money, jobs are being created. There's money going around developing the economy. That's excellent. So I can assure you, we've had discussions that actually there's discussion of ensuring that you apply for a visa or as I don't want to conclude because we will make announcements, but the objective is to make sure that it allows our football fans to move around as quickly and as freely as possible.

I was in LA. I went to watch one of the football matches and as I left, one of the people I haven't seen since I was working in America many years ago said to me, we are going to come, I'm bringing my whole family. We're going to come and watch the football in Kenya and what we are going to do is we're going to go on safari. So we're going to link our watching of football with taking the family on safari. Beautiful. Because he's not the only one. I've heard many other people say that the whole pamoja is going to be enormously successful. But thanks for that question.

Yeah. Now there are certain things you must be careful about being persuaded. There are certain things you should never be persuaded about. Nobody is going to persuade me to serve more than two terms in Kef. It's not going to happen. We took a decision to support and I personally support Infantino. He's not just a good friend, he's a loyal friend. He's loyal to Africa. I come from a different background where when people have been loyal to you, you never stab them in the back. You never do that. As I said, to help in Africa, that excites me. FIFA doesn't need me. So nobody's going to be able to persuade me to change my views on those things. But also because there are other people who are very good and who will do a good job. We've got to be careful that we don't start focusing too much on certain individuals. Everybody makes a contribution. But this country has got, raise your hand and become president of whatever you want to. And you used to write beautiful articles about me. But I'm just saying that Kev will be fine, African football will be fine even when I'm not there. That's part of what I'm focusing on. I've had the honor of making a humble contribution. Part of the job is to make sure that they are better people than me when I was there to take over, and they bring new leadership and new focus, but overall that's good for football. Thanks for those questions.

Very good question. You know, until an African country wins the World Cup, there will always be haters. That was the Arab version of what we are saying. So we have received so much respect for how the African countries played. We have to look at the psyche of our country as well. This is so important, the psyche of our country but also the psyche of the continent. There's so much for us to be proud about, to be inspired by. Look at the good. You will always find good and sadly you'll also always find weaknesses and challenges. People look at how we failed in the past and said we are destined to fail forever. Remember we come from a country where they said there was going to be civil war, and of course we come from a difficult path. But I think the feedback I've received from top football leaders in the world is that the Africans made us proud and they could have done even better. I mean, we were leading 2-0 against Argentina. If we just told the ref, we can't tell the referee, stop the game, let's go. But we will learn. So we've gained so much more respect and recognition. I can tell you at the next World Cup, I will not be in football. I will not be in Kef anymore when the next World Cup. I'll go to Morocco as an ordinary football spectator and fan. But I think Africa will do even better. Even better.

Brilliant. Brilliant question. Correct. Brilliant. I mean, just listening to you, something went through my mind. I spoke about the Catholic mission school I went to when I was 5 years old and spent 10 years there. They used to wake us up every morning at 6:00 and we had to go to church. Whether you liked it or not, you had to go to church. Every night before we went to bed, you had to go to church. For me, those were the best 10 years of my life. I like this. It's so important. Value is what you believe in. Simple things like honesty, integrity, treat the next person the way you would like to be treated, don't lie, don't steal. Those things are embedded in God. It's very important that we all grew up in families where some Sundays we went to church and we should put God and Jesus Christ at the center of what we do. Now let's go to something that crossed my mind while you were talking. We should have a conference talking about how people can make money out of football and bring all the football stakeholders. This reminds me of the days when I was president of Navco and would have meetings with thousands of businessmen. Football is a multi-billion dollar industry. I think the numbers are in excess of 300 billion American dollars. We have to have a meeting where the focus is how African small business, young business, all businesses get involved in football and make a living out of it. One of the things I liked enormously about this Munipe Foundation National Day of Prayer is you've got thousands of hawkers who come the night before at the FNB stadium, prepare food. Some come from KZN, the Eastern Cape. Unbelievable. They come just for that day of prayer because they make so much money selling food to our people. So we should look at football matches. I think our hawkers sell as well outside. I'm not talking about the sweet because you spoke about the tickets in America. I spent so much money buying tickets, but these were for the suites where we had partners and others who we want to support football and sponsor football. But it's a brilliant idea you raised. In everything we do, Lux, you must tell the secretary general. The secretary general is in Morocco, acting secretary general. I'm always reminded, please don't say secretary general, he's still acting. He does such wonderful work, he makes me proud. But we should make our events create opportunities for young business people to grow their businesses, to partner, to make income. That's a brilliant idea. We should implement it. I've taken note of it.

I like what? What's your name? Demo. You know, Demo, there's so much talent. Sometimes one of the things that excites me is we have to provide centers of that increase. In 2011 or something, they asked me to be the first chairman of the BRICS Business Council of the five countries: China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and Russia. One of the things we did was just what you're saying: we have to create these centers to allow interaction with the objective of entrepreneurial financial transactions. We have to make them happen. We will become better and better the more we make them happen. So continue.

Where did you grow up? I'm so proud of you. You know where in South Africa? You see, because we need to spend more time with young people like yourselves and others because sometimes we get so overwhelmed by the immediate emergencies and pressures. The pressures we have, this critical point you raise, we're not doing as much as we can and as much as we should. I wanted to conclude so that I can make a few quick remarks, but you've raised such good points.

I've always liked Becky and various other leaders. The same applies to every other leader who was in the ANC and those who are not part of the ANC. I've always had enormous respect. The reason why I mentioned Thabo Mbeki is because of what he said about afrophobia. I think it's correct to say what Julius said as well, Julius Malema. Very good. Now let me clarify two points on this issue of afrophobia and xenophobia. Illegality in all its forms, we will not tolerate. We reject illegality, and that includes illegal migration. Nobody, and of course criminality as well, we are totally against illegality in all its forms as well as illegal migration. That's very clear. Then there's a separate issue: when people legally come to this country. Something weird is happening in other parts of Africa. You come from outside the continent, you're a tourist. We welcome you. You're not coming here to take people's jobs because our job, of course, as a country, every country in Africa, your first obligation is your people. Without a doubt. The number one obligation of the government of South Africa is to create jobs and create a future for its people, 100%. Any form of illegality, whether by our South Africans or people from outside the continent, should not be tolerated under any circumstances. You've got to take effective legal action and ensure that there's a huge amount of respect for the law. Non-negotiable. But for businessmen like myself, Africa has no future, and we'll talk about it in the context of Kef and football. We have no future as a country. I meet the top businessmen, the top politicians, the top heads of state in the world, have done so for the last 30, 35 years. We have no future if we don't partner with the continent. It's politically unpopular to go and educate our people to say to them that we are all Africans. Africans means whether you're white or black or green or whatever, we are Africans and we're enriched by the different culture, the different languages, the different ways, the multi-racial, multicultural appearances of our people. But you will never be able to create the jobs that we need in this country and create a bright future for all our people without taking out the negativity and educating our people to realize that we have to interact with the continent in a manner that's mutually beneficial. Something weird happened about 20 years ago when I was hosting one of my children being baptized. We had invited many of our relatives and other guests to be there at the baptism. As one of the families were leaving, some guys came in a car and said they wanted to rob them. And they said, we see that you are South African, because you are South African we're not going to rob you. I mean there should be no robbing at all, but we thought that you were foreigners and because we thought you were foreigners we wanted to rob you. So that's why young people like yourself and others, the concern about our people not getting jobs is a legitimate concern and we've got a duty to do that. Of course that's also an equally legitimate concern when some of our businesses don't employ South Africans but employ people from outside the continent because they are prepared to accept low wages. It's wrong. But we have to do the right thing and educate our people and say to them that illegality will not be tolerated. From Kef we will issue those statements. We have to say we support the cooperation, the working together of Africans on the continent. We will not tolerate, we cannot support illegality. We cannot support illegal migration. All over the world, some of the leaders are correct when they raise issues to say that you know, we should try and create jobs in those countries. Forget about people from outside South Africa. If you don't create jobs in Limpopo, you don't create jobs in KwaZulu-Natal, you don't create jobs in Eastern Cape, people will leave the rural areas and come to the cities because they need jobs. So we need to work together to try and create jobs in the countries in our neighboring countries and in other countries on the continent. Okay, let's go back now. Kef will issue a statement to say that we support legality. We do not support illegality in all its forms. We fully appreciate and support and recognize that the duties of every government starts with its own citizens to create jobs and to create a future for its citizens. But we should stop this intolerance and prejudice and violence against our own people just because they come from outside the continent or outside our countries. That's why we don't want to go into politics because we've got to at times stand for what is ethically and morally correct. They say, 'Yeah, but you're going to lose votes.' If you lose votes for what is ethically and morally principled and in line with our religious convictions and upbringing, then lose the votes. That's what we should teach our children. President, we'll do that at Kef as well.

Good question. Good question. Thank you. Now I have this difficult question. I have to go to Mali. I've been there and the military was in control. But I went there because of football. I have to go to Burkina Faso. And some of the African heads of state said, 'Don't go there because there's a military junta there.' I have to go to Niger. And some of the heads of state say, 'Don't go there because there's a military leadership.' But I think we've got to deal with reality. Democracy and freedom of speech and regular elections is non-negotiable. That's critical. But I will be visiting those countries to engage on the football part. The decision as to where the Afcon will go is a decision of the Exco. There are so many presidents who say to me they think I have the power to decide, magic, that the Afcon is going to go to a certain country. I don't want that power. Part of my duty is also to create a culture where Kef functions in a manner that reflects ethics and governance and transparency but also global best practices. So we don't know at this stage where the Afcon is going in 2028, 2032, and 2036. Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali will have as good a chance as everybody else. They are not going to be disadvantaged or prejudiced by the fact that there are military juntas. But you raise a very important point, the questions of safety and security. Those are questions that we will have to address. But there's no decision that has been taken as to where it will go. It's a very good question.

Very good question because you see, we have to work with the rest of the world, and the rest of the world includes countries in Europe, in America, North America, Latin America, and Asia. So that proposal will be looked at in the context of any other proposal. But I can tell you the standards are very high, very high. We have to be convinced that there'll be free movement of our fans and spectators and supporters in and out. We have to be convinced, and this applies to every country, that our fans and our guests will be safe, will be protected by the police and everybody else. Good infrastructure because it's also a moment to strengthen the ties between our people on the continent as well as our people in Africa and the rest of the world. Those countries are members of Kef. They've come to put in a bid. We've got to look at it. We've got to look at the infrastructure. There's an independent entity that has to go there and make a report. So they'll come back and say the stadiums are good or are not good, the hospitals and the hotels and all of those infrastructural requirements. Sometimes football can just be the tool to bring people together. Of course I can't talk in public what I discussed privately with the head of state, but part of my duties is the people in the country and not just the football supporters. The commitment that all of us have to democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and the fundamental principles that are important for us on the continent.

Very good question. Because when there's an Afcon, I have an opportunity to meet with the referees. I maybe see them once or maybe even twice a year. That's an opportunity to do two things. Number one, to emphasize that we want them to have a future in football where they earn good money, can create a future, to diminish or even eliminate the chances of corruption. It's also an opportunity for me to hear from them what are we not doing well as Kef, what are the areas where we should improve, as well as areas where they're happy that we are making progress. So it became clear to me that to be a referee at the FIFA World Cup is an honor and they earn good money. We've also in Kef significantly increased what they earn, and we still can do more and we will do more. So when I saw that, it really saddened me because I gave him an award last year on behalf of the 54 Kef member associations as our top referee. Excellent referee. It was necessary to try and ameliorate the experiences he had. That's why I said I want to thank UAE and thank President Sephirin for the partnership. He will be the referee at the champions of the two club competitions in Europe at the highest level. It's a great honor for me, for Africa, for African referees. And it's a great honor for him as well. What made me happy is to hear him laugh. You can't hear people smiling, but you can hear them laugh and be happy over the phone and express so much joy. So we will keep supporting and keep assisting our referees because we are very proud of him, as much as we are proud of every one of the referees on the African continent. Makoku, thank you very much.