Abrupt pause of African Football League explained

The competition, launched in 2023 and scaled down to an eight-team inaugural edition, was won by Mamelodi Sundowns under Rulani Mokwena.

Despite the initial excitement and strong continental interest, the tournament has not resumed since — quickly fading from prominence after its debut run.

Motaung, who also serves as a Kaizer Chiefs board member and marketing director, acknowledged that the AFL remains an ambitious project but admitted it is simply not viable at this stage. 

"I think it's a lot of factors, currently it's on hold and again I think it's building strong leads first before you start having an elite league. It didn't even work in Europe, so we need to look at why it didn't work in Europe and its number of things, it's scheduling, it's definitely the scheduling and I think you can see even recently, players are exhausted, they are playing a lot of games,” Motaung said.

“There's a lot of tournaments, a lot of competitions, you look at players who played in the Club World Cup with the change now, they are exhausted. So, we have to sit down and look at the calendar.

“We also need to look at, you can't create this elite league if you haven't strengthened the local leagues. One of the questions I asked when it came up was, how is it going to affect the PSL, that's why it became a one month event rather than a league that's happening all the time because initially it was gonna be a league that was gonna happen all the time. 

“What happens to domestic leagues which are very important as well. So, there's a lot of questions around it, so there was a pilot. We have to sit down and look at how that pilot worked and whether it's something that can be replicated again.

“But I think for us right now it's to build the clubs and make sure they are sustainable. Build the leagues and have the right competitions that are in place."

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Motaung said their mission was to help create leagues that can hold their ground financially and have approached FIFA for a partnership. 

"We'll be signing and working on an MOU with FIFA to collaborate with them as well and then going out there and trying to find funding and resources to further really uplift African football and African club football because at the end of the day clubs are the foundation of the game,” she added.

“A lot of people forget that and I think also the structures are very different in other areas where maybe clubs are government owned and I think South Africa as a league as an example and also you look at the leagues in North Africa, an example of how leagues can be independent, can thrive, can generate revenue. 

“So, the key part for me is how do we start helping and how do I use my experience from Chiefs and the league to start building stronger leagues on the continent and to create vibal clubs and vibal leagues that actually can stand alone."