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Mamelodi Sundowns will play Pyramids FC in the CAF Champions first leg final on Saturday afternoon.
The vision of the Confederation of African Football President, Patrice Motsepe, has been to modernise African football. Thinking global and acting local, his aim was to elevate and improve the brand of continental football, and he has already made a big impact.
More than 1.5 billion television viewers watched the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations tournament played in the Ivory Coast.
Recent CAF Champions League matches attracted in the region of 200 million television viewers.
Deputy Chair of the African Clubs Association, Jessica Motaung, believes that Motsepe’s leadership has been crucial in their success.
“Great leadership from Dr Patrice Motsepe. You can see right now sponsors have confidence. There is good governance, there’s more investment thanks to Total Energies for their re-commitment to CAF. That’s because a lot of work has been done. I am just proud that us, as the ACA now we want to further propel that in terms of helping clubs to commercialize themselves, working with leagues to ensure their product is a lot better and working with broadcasters … all those stakeholders to make sure the game is elevated,” explains Motaung.
Meanwhile, Mamelodi Sundowns will play Pyramids FC in the CAF Champions first leg final on Saturday afternoon.
The good news for both clubs is that the prize money has increased exponentially over the past few years.
The winners of this season’s Champions League will pocket $4 million while the runners up will take home $2 million.
Former Sundowns midfielder Teko Modise, who was a member on the winning team in 2016, is a bit jealous of his current counterparts, but believes that it’s a win for African football.
“It’s a problem. I am jealous, but anyway it’s good money for the clubs. It’s a good investment. It is also what they said on stage. It’s ploughed back into football again. You win this tournament, you are able to keep your players, you can sign better players. You can plough back into development structures to get more players to come in there and football is the winner,” explains Modise.
