Youth football on scope as CAF heads assemble in Morocco

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) symposium preceding Friday’s Extraordinary General Assembly kicked off on Tuesday in Rabat, with youth football in the continent at the centre of focus.

A proposal to have an Under-16 continental championship was presented, targeting all member associations to have concrete leagues of players within the age.

Speaking to Citizen Digital at the Moroccan capital, former Super Eagles of Nigeria star Austin Jay Jay Okocha noted the initiative will turn around Africa’s football fortunes if implemented.

“This will be a big blessing to Africa. We have played here and in European leagues, and the major difference between us and the countries doing well in football is the stage at which we start preparing our players.

“While a boy in Europe and America who is supposed to compete against an other from Africa in say World Cup learns football philosophies and competes at high level championships at early age, here we have very few privileged such exposure,” noted Okocha.

Justis Mugisha, Uganda’s Football Federation First Vice president who also seats in the East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association (EASSSA) underscored the importance of youth competitions.

“This proposal is 80 percent done, because UEFA (European football governing body) is partnering with CAF and will be sponsoring the competition.

“The FIFA president Giani Infantino whose working relationship with CAF’s Ahmad Ahmad is very good has endorsed it. It is just a matter of member association heads agreeing on how to implement it,” charged Mugisha.

If passed, the first tournament will be in 2019, with the teams drawn from specific continental zones.

The format will see zonal winners, being grouped for the continental showpiece, with proposal of new football zones also in discussion.

“Africa has 54 countries, such a tournament cannot cause any congestion. It is a question of looking ahead, because if we dwell on adults football without investing in junior youth, we will never breed a generation to challenge European American countries,” offered Mugisha.

Among other agenda in the opening days’ deliberations included media facilitation for better statistics and coverage of African competitions, CAF TV rights and marketing, interclub competitions and calendar amendments.

Meanwhile, Arabic has been proposed to be a CAF official language, in a development that could see it added to English and French, which are currently the official languages.

-Jacob Icia is reporting from Rabat, Morocco.