New CAF President Ahmad Ahmad has made his first move and is considering expanding the Africa Cup of Nations to 24 teams which will be open to non-African countries and hosted outside Africa in an aim to make it attractive and raise revenue.
This was recommended by CAF’s Marketing and TV team on Wednesday at the two-day African Football Symposium in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
The team said it had agreed on the increasing of the AFCON teams “from 16 to 24 and to have from 20 to 21 African teams in addition to 3 or 4 invitees from other continents”.
Amongst proposal also includes taking the 2023 edition to countries who already have the infrastructure and have money to stage a grand competition.
Countries that we were put on the table included U.S.A or Qatar who will be hosting the 2022 edition of the World Cup thus will have the facilities available.
CAF Marketing team are looking to create new and innovative ways to make Africa’s flagship competition more attractive but these recommendations will first have to be passed by the executive committee.
There has been a long standing debate about the timing of the Africa Cup of Nations with European clubs complaining about key players leaving in the middle of the season.
There are 55 CAF executive committee members in Rabat Morocco for the historic Symposium.
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By: Rahman Osman/citifmonline.com/Ghana