Why the plan for an African Super League is just as flawed as it was in Europe

That the reaction between the leaked intentions to launch continent-wide Super Leagues in Europe and Africa were diametrically opposite came as no surprise.

The former was participant-led, a voracious money-grab by elite clubs. The latter was organisation-led: last November, CAF president Patrice Motsepe said his governing body was committed to the formation of a new future for African domestic football.

In no person was that reaction more different than Fifa president Gianni Infantino. When news of the European Super League broke, he staunchly opposed it. “There is a lot to throw away for maybe a short-term financial gain for some. Either you are in or you are out.”

Yet in Africa, Infantino appears to have abandoned his principles of long-termism, sporting integrity and competitive balance. Which is predictable given that this is his brainchild. In 2019, he announced his intention for a pan-African league: “We have to take the 20 best African clubs and put them in an Africa league. Such a league could make at least $200m [£149m] in revenue, which would put it among the top 10 in the world.”

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Where Infantino leads on African football, CAF tends to follow. In 2019, Fifa was called in to assist with the administration and organisation of African football’s governing body. That work has now officially ended, but there is some suspicion that it has left an extensive residual influence. “I am happy that Fifa could contribute, even if only a little, to this decisive moment for football on this great continent,” said Infantino after the election of Motsepe as CAF president. Rough translation: He’s my guy. Or “indirect recolonisation”, as one South African newspaper called it.

The details of the potential Super League are vague, but we can expect a 20-team league including such sides as Al Ahly and Zamalek from Egypt, Wydad and Raja from Morocco, Mamelodi Sundowns from South Africa, TP Mazembe from DR Congo.

“In a way, the CAF Champions League is broken,” says Algerian journalist Maher Mezahi. “Most people I have spoken to – players, coaches, fans – aren’t against a revamp of the competitions. But they have no idea what the Super League is going to be. There is a complete lack of detail.”

Chiefly, this is a money grab. Infantino spoke of $200m annual revenue, while Motsepe ran with that number into the far distance, suggesting a potential $3bn generated over a five-year cycle. But that seems fanciful. CAF terminated a 12-year, $1bn rights deal with Lagardere Sports after rulings over breaches of competition law.

One way in which that money could be generated is by charging clubs to participate – $20m a year has been mentioned. But again, that is pie-in-the-sky thinking. “Al Ahly are one of Africa’s biggest clubs,” Mezahi says. “The prize money for winning the Champions League is around $2.5m and that is around the same as the annual salaries for two of their better players. If they cannot afford it, nobody else can either.”

Is there suddenly going to be more interest in this new competition? How many Nigerians are going to watch a new CAF Super League if no clubs from their country are involved and they already have European football on tap? At most, this Super League is likely to represent 12 of CAF’s 56 nations each year, considering the probable number of multiple entrants from single nations.

How can you purport to represent a continent if some nations have no feasible chance to participate?

And, as with the European Super League’s great flaw, how quickly does watching the same teams play each other get boring? At least in Europe you had the unique selling point of the best players in the world.

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The thoughts of supporters have clearly not been canvassed. The greatest element of African club football – at least as a spectacle – is not the CAF Champions League final but the derbies between great rivals and the fan culture they provoke. Either these teams will be separated – Kaizer Chiefs with no Orlando Pirates, Simba but no Young Africans, Esperance but no Club Africain – or you remove the context of what makes them so special: titanic tussles for domestic supremacy.

The devastation of fan culture would be predictable. Travelling across the continent would be arduous for clubs, let alone supporters. There are almost 9,000km between Cairo and Johannesburg, with a flight time of eight hours each way. Away support will be impossible.

But most damaging is the probable impact on the continent’s domestic leagues. With financial futures already uncertain, smaller clubs depend on the presence of bigger clubs for match-day revenue. Their survival would depend on CAF sharing the revenue of its new competition with teams in domestic leagues, enabling them to bridge the gap. But with player wages low and the talent drain to Europe relentless, that is highly optimistic.

There are systemic issues within African domestic football, including organisational structure, a decline in advertising revenue, corruption, football infrastructure (pitches, equipment, fan safety), subservience to European football, the domination of the Premier League over fan culture in certain countries, transport issues. Nobody is claiming that the system does not need reformation or revamp.

But a closed-shop Super League is surely not the answer.

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