CAF: The African Football League will return bigger and better in 2025

In an exclusive interview with SABC Sport on the sidelines of the CAF Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte D’Ivoire, Adamu says the AFL could return with a different format. The AFL started with all eight teams last year, and this year was expected to increase to 16 or 24 teams. 

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Adamu has more on the latest.

''I think the plans fully for the AFL, it is highly unlikely this year because we only have a few months until the end of the year but the plans will be revealed for next year, as to when it is going to happen and what are the plans for it. But there is advanced talk in terms of the preparation for the AFL to make that the AFL is bigger than before. And for the Club World Cup, AFL is going to have men's club football as you saw the last edition was extremely good, even bigger and better,'' said  Adamu.

Adamu reiterates that whatever happens with the AF next year will not affect the national leagues and the CAF inter-club schedules...

''That is still being finalised. But of course there will be no destruction to the football that is going on. The object is to have the least destruction but rather enhance what we have going on,'' added  Adamu.

CAF President Patrice Motsepe also told SABC Sport that the AFL is attracting many sponsors and addressed the calendar issue, which has seen some national leagues around the continent think twice about the tournament...

''It is going very well and proven beyond doubt that it is an exciting competition. And we are in a great position that all sponsors who are keen to participate, so what we are doing is that we are looking at the calendar, particularly because of the World Cup next year. So a lot of good progress has been made already, there's a lot of investors now who want to come in, not only to sponsor but to acquire equity ownership. There's a lot of interesting things we are doing,'' said Motsepe.

CAF has always planned to use the money generated from the AFL to improve its other competitions, like the CAF Champions League, the CAF Confederation Cup, and the Member Associations. 

SABC Sports understands that this is because the sponsorships for these other competitions are locked, something Motsepe and his Exco couldn’t change as they inherited it from the previous regime.