CAF president Motsepe says aiming for African team to win 'next World Cup'

Hello and welcome to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Welcome to an exclusive interview with Patris Motsepe. He is the chair of the Confederation of African Football Calf, as it’s known. Thank you very much for being with us. It’s an absolute pleasure. A few months ago, the African Cup of Nation took place in Ivory Coast. How would you describe it? Was it a total success or there’s room for improvement? Well, there’s always room for improvement, but I’m confident that the future of African football looks bright. We set an objective that one of our main aims is to ensure that a national team, a country in Africa, becomes champions of the next World Cup. We will continue to make successes and in relation to the Afghan in Cordova the most successful, the most successful in the history of African football. 2.2 billion viewers all over the world watched the the Afghan in Africa. We had double the number of sponsors that supported African football, about 120 from about 60 sponsors, a record number of viewerships in countries and in continents where we were not there historically, but also where the numbers have increased significantly. Was it profitable? The the F Con in Cordova has been the most profitable ever and because the numbers speak for themselves. But it can only be profitable if the quality of African football is exciting. How profitable? You’re a business person. I can ask you for some figure. We have made in excess of about $80 million. This is the the profits. If you look at the previous one, we made about 4 million. So we made, we made about 80 million. And and a huge chunk of that money is going back to the, to the country, to the 54 countries for football development. They’re getting more money than before, correct. And part of the objective is to give them more in future. My job is to lay a foundation and to make sure that the foundation I I I contribute to provide building with the highest decision making body in African football called Exco. And and the management, the secretariat is doing excellent leadership under Veron. We have to provide a foundation so that, you know, when I step down and I’ve got you know, I’ve got lots of other philanthropies is something that really is very close to my heart. But so the future leaders can even get more right. You mentioned stepping down. Your mandate is running into March 2025. Are you stepping down or are you up for re election? It’s a very simple answer, please. I’ve got many of my sponsors who say, but we are worried that this new leadership has done so well. There’s there’s transparency, there’s auditing, there’s ethics. And we’re worried when you leave. I said, but yeah, we are the biggest shareholders in some of the largest companies in Africa. And part of my duty there in business as well as in football and other organizations that I’m involved in is to have an effective, capable leadership that can replace me. Not when there’s an election or not when there’s an AGM ordinary generals meeting of shareholders, but tomorrow. I’m happy that in CAF we’ve got world class leaders that can replace me tomorrow. OK, so you’re not saying I’m running for a single mandate as you did. You could say I’m open to a second mandate. There’s a you’re not ruling it out for me. That is the most unimportant question, whether I’m going to be whether whether I’m going to run or not going to run. It’s, it’s, I would be disappointed if 10 years from now a lot of the good work that we did is, is is retrogressing or is being undermined because we have to entrench ethics in football. We have to entrench integrity. We have to make sure that when referees take decisions and match commissioners take decisions and the VAR takes a decision that in Africa as well as all over the world, it’s seen as as good as the best in the world. When you arrived there was a big financial hole. There were allegations of money being miss spent or even worse. Did you really encounter A disastrous situation when when you arrived there was serious, serious problems. And I think part of the problems was what the, what the Shell sponsors were saying was what the partners were saying that we don’t have any confidence in where the resources, the finding, the financing and the funding that we are allocated, where the money is going. The auditing processes were questionable. The decisions of of referees and match commissioners were questionable. There were a whole lot of that was corrupt. Let’s put it bluntly. There were serious problems relating to, you’re being more polite than I am. I, I, I can tell you confidently that there were indeed fundamental problems relating to governance. There were fundamental problems relating to auditing, transparency. You’ve heard the accusations against you that Gianni Infantino is the actual boss of Calf, that you’re essentially there because of him and, and so on. I, I see you’re, you’re smiling. What is your response to those allegations that are not very nice, I’m assuming for Someone Like You who’s been very successful elsewhere. If you’re in my position, you learn that you’ve got to understand things for what they are. This whole thing arose in the context of big arguments and disagreements on the World Cup every four years. It it happens all over the time. And the views that we expressed was essentially an African view. And I, I don’t just respect the views from other parts of the world which are different. I’ve got to listen to them. And, and, and the aim is to try and find a solution that’s good for world football. A number of African heads of state were laughing. You know, people I’ve worked with for many years and some of the top businessmen, I mean the most successful businessman in the world. We get amused by these sort of things that Africa hasn’t got the capacity and and the integrity, but not it’s not even an issue of integrity, but just hasn’t got the the self-confidence and the ability to exclusively take decisions in, in relation to what’s in his best interest. That’s something of the past and it’s, it’s, it’s a matter. I’m not, it’s not, it didn’t bother me. One controversy that’s been around is the head of the Cameroon federation, Samuel Ito. He’s is under an investigation by CAF for allegations of Max fixing in Cameroon. He is criticized. CAF even threatened to sue its secretary general because it’s he says it’s defamation. I understand he was hurt just very recently. Can you tell us if he risks a suspension from football and when this decision will be taken? I mean, that two very basic and fundamental issues #1 is Samuel Etto in my heart will always be a football player who’s made us proud, who was among the most talented and and I’ll continue to be proud of what he has achieved on the football team. That’s very important. The second issues, there are these allegations not just about in relation to Samuel Etto, but in relation to others. And the critical aspect is from a CAF perspective, we have to follow due process. We’ve got to investigate every complaint, every accus, accusation, any allegation in an ethical manner, complying with global principles of of an assumption of innocence until proven guilty. But it’s critically important that there’s a clear understanding it’s not just about football, it’s also about what happens in Africa in particular, but also in many parts of the world. None of us, starting with me as the president of KEF, none of us are above the law. A decision could be suspension right from football activities. A decision on any matter will be dictated not only by the the yearning and what comes out of it, but also by the rules and the requirements of the KEF and FIFA statutes and regulations. I want to talk quickly because we’re arriving to the end of the interview about Gabon. There were reports of sexual abuse by several coaches. Some of them have been arrested. Some of the victims, alleged victims I should say, have complained that the president of the Gabonese Football Federation, Pierre Alamogengi, against whom there were charges that he failed to report those abuses, has been supported by CAF. He was recently re elected to the executive. You even paid a visit to him when he was in prison. And the victims are saying this proves that CAF is protecting its own, that it doesn’t care about sexual abuse issues and so on. So can you please answer those allegations because those are very serious issues. Some might say it’s marginal, but maybe it’s larger than that. It can never be marginal. The issue of sexual abuse is a is a serious, serious accusation, Absolutely serious. We will take appropriate action, including expulsion. Even though he was re elected. You see, you’ve got to allow accusations to be tested in the judicial process and and you’ve got to also ensure that those processes are ethical, that they’ve got good judges from amongst the best in the continent. We’ve got excellent judges. We’ve got in many countries in Africa, the legal system is excellent. We will get to the bottom of it. Well, we have been looking at this not only as a matter of urgency, but part of the problem we have as well is we’ve got 3 senior members of African football who are in jail right now. And they’re in jail because of accusations of corruption and having stolen money. And we, we respect the sovereignty and the legal judicial processes in, in any country. But if somebody’s being accused, take them to jail. I mean, take them to court. The, the president of Gabon was accused of these sexual abuses, Kev said. Take him to court. Let the let the judicial process take its take its course and we as CAF as well will follow our processes. So you know, to lock people and keep them in jail for months and sometimes years and not take them to court puts us in a very complicated position. But nevertheless, we have to follow our processes, and it’s difficult to follow our processes when the person that we’re investigating is in jail. Patrice Mutzette, I want to thank you very much for appearing here on France 24 and thank you all for watching this interview from Rabat in Morocco. I didn’t ask you to speak, Frank.