Hello and welcome to Face à Face, the major interview show on France 24. Our guest today is Patrice Motsepe, the president of CAF. Thank you for being our guest.
Let's start with Kenya. We are in Nairobi. Kenya is one of the host countries for the next Africa Cup of Nations, along with Uganda and Tanzania. It's now in one year. Will all the host countries be ready for a successful Africa Cup of Nations?
There is a very strong commitment from the heads of state of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The ministries are working around the clock. There is an excellent team from the Confederation of African Football led by the secretary general. We have full-time teams in these countries. We have set very high standards. Will they be met? Well, these standards, as I said, are very high, and it is very important that there is a very strong commitment across all sectors, and I am certain that we will achieve it. And therefore, the Africa Cup of Nations will be even more successful.
We will at least do as well as what happened in Morocco. And what I like is seeing the commitment, the concentration to do even better than what we did in Morocco. We must improve continuously. Each edition must be better than the previous one.
There was my first edition in Cameroon with a lot of success despite all the challenges. Then a second edition in Côte d'Ivoire, even better than the one we did in Cameroon, and Morocco, which allowed us to reach a truly very high level. And I also want to thank the Moroccan people, the state, His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God protect him, as well as all our partners in the world of football.
Faouzi, you spoke of great success. However, the final somewhat tarnished the picture. We all remember what happened. Senegal was declared the winner. Then two months later, a CAF appeals committee declared that Morocco had won, which sparked very strong tensions and controversy. Now, the decision will be made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Do you think, whatever the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, will it calm things down or will the discontent remain?
I believe we have returned to a normal situation. We have learned the lessons from what happened in Morocco. I have already said it, I was deeply disappointed because this edition had enormous success, and it showed us that there was a continuous feeling of distrust towards refereeing.
We did an excellent job in partnership with FIFA. We professionalized our refereeing work, our standards, our quality, our expertise, truly at a world-class level. But in some places, there remains a feeling of bias, of imbalance. And one thing is certain, if there are corrupt, inappropriate behaviors, well, we will take serious measures.
You didn't find any with the referees of the final.
I will tell you one thing. We called the president of the refereeing committee to account, to present his vision of the performance of refereeing before the highest body of CAF, the executive committee with 23, 24, 25 presidents from member federations who are part of the Confederation of African Football of the continent. We asked him questions because that is how things should work. And I will finish by telling you something else. I am optimistic that based on what happened in Morocco, optimistic about the fact that we are stronger, more united than ever.
My role is to respect the ongoing processes, and I cannot yet comment on the decisions of the Court of Arbitration for Sport before the verdict is rendered. I am certain that whatever the verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, we will respect it. It is a democratic process. If there is a perception on the part of countries that there was inappropriate behavior, each country has the right to file a request with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
But you know, there are many countries, including Senegal, who said that Morocco should win. Senegal said that Morocco should win. Yes, many people, sports commentators, members of certain federations said there was a lot of pressure for Morocco to win the competition on or off the field.
Wait, explain to me, explain something to me. Why would there be pressure from Morocco? Because it was the host country. No, you deny these allegations?
Listen, our reputation is our most precious asset. Reputation is not what I say we are. It is what the spectators, the fans think we are in relation to our conduct, our behavior, and that is very important. Therefore, we must constantly be careful. There are 1.6 billion Africans who love football, and there were 3 billion viewers during the AFCON. For us, it is very important that in the minds of all those watching the AFCON, one thing is clear: the winner wins because he is the best and because he deserves to win.
We train our referees, we use VAR, and we try to be at the highest level. There can be criticisms, sometimes legitimate. Then there must be an evaluation, and action must be taken if it is necessary.
