By Sola Fanawopo
On paper, the brand new African soccer calendar unveiled by the Confederation of African Soccer (CAF) is daring, fashionable, and strategically sound.
A transition to a four-year AFCON cycle after 2028, with the following version in 2032. The introduction of an annual African Nations League from 2029. A re-engineered interclub calendar aligned with international rhythms.
In my view, these usually are not reckless concepts. In truth, they’re lengthy overdue structural corrections designed to insulate African soccer from a long time of exterior stress, particularly from main European leagues and golf equipment who’ve handled AFCON as an inconvenience slightly than a continental crown jewel.
From a purely technical standpoint, CAF is correct.
And but, the backlash from elite African coaches, gamers and even journalists tells us one thing equally necessary: Good choices can nonetheless fail if the method that produces them provokes criticism. A journalist even accused Dr Patrice Motsepe’s CAF of operating African soccer for Europeans.
Why the Calendar Logic Is Sound
I feel CAF’s targets are rational and defensible. Aligning African soccer with the worldwide calendar reduces friction over participant releases. A four-year AFCON cycle protects elite gamers from fixed worldwide overload. An annual African Nations League creates constant, high-level aggressive soccer outdoors AFCON years, making certain African followers and broadcasters usually are not starved of marquee occasions.
This calendar does one thing Africa has lengthy wanted: it negotiates from power, not apology.
For the primary time, CAF is just not reacting to complaints from Europe, it’s redesigning its ecosystem to neutralise them.
That issues.
However Soccer Is Not a Spreadsheet
The place CAF miscalculated is just not within the concept, however the methodology
Soccer is just not ruled by calendars alone. It’s ruled by consent. The criticism from prime African journalists, coaches and gamers has uncovered a troubling hole: the individuals most affected by these modifications seem to have been knowledgeable, not consulted.
That distinction is every little thing.
Coaches construct careers on preparation cycles that now change basically. Gamers inherit new bodily, psychological, and cultural rhythms. Home leagues should redesign seasons. Broadcasters and sponsors recalibrate long-term methods.
When voices at this degree react publicly slightly than privately, it suggests not resistance to progress, however exclusion from the method.
Stakeholder Sport, Government Determination
Soccer is a stakeholder sport by nature. Its legitimacy flows upward, from gamers, coaches, golf equipment, leagues, and followers, earlier than it flows downward into governance constructions.
When choices of this magnitude emerge primarily from government corridors, they danger being seen as technically right however democratically skinny. That’s the hazard CAF now faces.
Even probably the most wise reform will wrestle to realize belief if those that execute it day by day really feel bypassed.
Course of Is Not Courtesy, It Is Infrastructure
In fashionable soccer governance, session is just not ceremonial. It’s structural. Participant unions exist exactly for moments like this. Coaches’ associations exist to stress-test calendars in opposition to sporting actuality.
Carrying these our bodies alongside doesn’t weaken authority, it strengthens legitimacy. Had CAF convened a visual, continent-wide stakeholder dialogue earlier than unveiling this calendar, at present’s dialog can be totally different. The controversy can be about refinement, not resentment.
The Missed Alternative
CAF had an opportunity to current this calendar not simply as a reform, however as a continental consensus. Africa talking with one voice to the worldwide sport. As an alternative, the narrative shifted to governance belief.
That’s unlucky, as a result of the reforms themselves deserve severe consideration, not suspicion.
The Backside Line
CAF’s new calendar is bold, clever, and strategically aligned with international soccer realities. It addresses long-standing structural weaknesses and repositions African soccer with confidence.
However soccer is just not modernised by construction alone.
It’s sustained by course of, inclusion, and belief.
If CAF desires these reforms to endure, the following step should not be one other announcement, however a recalibration of how choices are made.
As a result of in African soccer, as in all places else, the long run isn’t just about getting the reply proper, it’s about bringing everybody into the room the place the reply is determined.
Sola Fanawopo, Chairman Osun State Soccer Affiliation
The submit AFCON 2025: Why CAF’s new calendar makes sense but its decision-making process may not appeared first on Vanguard News.
