The President of CAF, Dr Patrice Motsepe announced during his visit to the Ivory Coast, the donation of USD 10m by the Motsepe Foundation to the FIFA-CAF Pan-African School Football Championship.

The USD 10m donation will be used to initiate and support the development and growth of schools’ football in the 6 CAF Zones as part of the FIFA-CAF Pan-African School Football Championship which was launched by FIFA and CAF in Kinshasa, DRC a few weeks ago.

The co-founder of the Motsepe Foundation, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe said “The Motsepe Foundation is passionate and committed to academic excellence and football excellence and has been sponsoring schools football in South Africa for many years. We are now extending this commitment and passion to the rest of the African Continent.”

The best investment we can make to ensure that African football is amongst the best in the world and self-sustaining, is to invest in schools’ football and youth football development infrastructure for boys and girls at club and national level. This is one of my key focus areas as President of CAF.

“Schools are an extremely important social vehicle for the promotion of key life values” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino. “Football values, which include respect, discipline, teamwork and fair-play, are perfect complements for the education of future generations, and FIFA is delighted to be part of this important initiative, together with CAF, for the benefit of youths in Africa. Thanks to the generous donation of the Motsepe Foundation, joy and hope will be given to millions of children across the continent for the years to come.”

Boys and girls aged between 12 and 14 will play in the FIFA-CAF Pan-African School Football Championship, which will have 3 stages; starting at national level (via national football associations) and thereafter proceeding to the 6 Zonal level tournaments which provides the qualification path to the FIFA-CAF Pan-African School Football Championship Finals.

The winning schools will use the prize money, to, inter alia, purchase and provide schools football development and education or academic infrastructure, facilities and equipment. Additional information concerning the utilisation of the USD 10M donation by the Motsepe Foundation and the FIFA-CAF Pan-African School Football Championship will be provided in due course.

Pilot national tournaments will take place in several countries throughout Africa; including Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, with other participating countries to be announced in due course. Qualification tournaments will be played between May and December 2021, with the finals scheduled for February 2022.

The first full edition of the FIFA-CAF Pan-African School Football Championship, including all countries from the African Continent, will take place between 2022 and 2023.

Soka25east.com