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Following the below-par performances of the match officials at the recent 2025 AFCON tournament, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is moving with speed to fix its ailing department.
This was confirmed yesterday by CAF President Patrice Motsepe during the executive committee meeting in Tanzania. After a very successful AFCON tournament two years before in the Ivory Coast, where even the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was one of the highlights, the standard at the recent AFCON was shocking. Motsepe says they are zooming in on this department.
"I am absolutely determined, and CAF is absolutely determined – as is the leadership of CAF, the highest decision-making body, the CAF Exco – to ensure that, in the judgement of ordinary football people, there are two things we have been doing and will continue to do. We will make sure that the referees, the VAR operators and the match commissioners are world-class in their training, in their expertise and in the quality of the decisions they take," said Motsepe
CAF has been without a head of referees since Désiré Noumandiez Doué from Rwanda was relieved of his duties as Director of Refereeing, following Morocco's formal protest over officiating in the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) final last year. The hosts had lost fair and square to Nigeria in this final. Motsepe says it’s important that football fans don’t start to doubt the impartiality of the match officials.
Meanwhile, following recent reports that Morocco could pull out of hosting this year’s WAFCON tournament scheduled for the 17th of next month until the third of April, Motsepe says the tournament will go ahead as planned. CAF had reached out to other countries, including South Africa, to explore the possibility of hosting the tournament in case Morocco pulls out.
Motsepe has also reiterated why they are discontinuing the African Nations Championship (CHAN) tournament and why the new Africa Nations League (ANL) will be a bigger and better version.
"We've just had the most successful CHAN in the history of this competition. The Africa Nations League (ANL), which is going to take its place, is even more competitive, with more money, more resources, more sponsors and more players.
"The challenge now is it's going to take place at a time when the best players in the world are available, and some nations may decide that even though they can get the best players from overseas, they want to mix them with some of the locals."
