Former Ghana head coach Claude Le Roy has kicked against the decision of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to change the football calendar of the Africa Cup of Nations from two years to four years.
The surprise announcement about the future of AFCON was made by Motsepe after a meeting of CAF’s executive committee in Morocco before the start of the 2025 finals in Rabat on Sunday.
The tournament has taken place every two years since 1968, with a one-year gap between the 2012 and 2013 editions.
Read Also:AFCON 2025: Chukwueze Deserves Gift From Me — Onyedika
But it will switch to a four-year cycle after the 2027 AFCON in East Africa and a 2028 edition.
Reacting to the development, Le Roy, in a chat with BBC Africa Sport’s Osasu Obayiuwana, stated that it is very wrong to change the AFCON from a two- to a four-year event.
“Football in Africa is under serious attack. It is very wrong to change the AFCON from a two to a four-year event.
“Look at the way Infantino was acting during the AFCON 2025 opening ceremony, like he owns the place. Can he do this at a UEFA event?. When Issa Hayatou was president, these things would never have happened,” he added.
1 Comment
Very true statement Le Roy, we’ve heard some useless European coaches and ex players belittle the AFCON calling it all sorts of names. FIFA itself is contributing to the attack by not mandating teams to release players for the customary 2 weeks b4 a globally watched competion commences. European clubs holding on to players and even threatening players of being excluded if they attend the AFCON like useless redneck Conte did to Mikel @Beijing olympics while forcing Victor Moses arguablly our best player at d time from participating, sometin he wouldn’tdare try with Eden Hazard if he wanted to play at d olympics. These are pure attacks to the AFCON, only for the SA stooge to accept this nonsense of staging the AFCON every 4yrs. This is the stupidest idea I’ve heard in a long time, what an idiot. Must we copy everything a white man does? The uniqueness of the AFCON has not been seen anywhere in the world with multiculturalism, good vibes, entertainment etc not dat dry crap demonstrated by the Europeans (dia football is boring, yes boring like dia pipo). Motsepe is an idiot, granted he has brought more money to the competition, he has also caused more harm to our football with his regional bullshit competitions like WAFU A, B, etc, thereby eliminating potential power houses like ghana, senegal, ivory coast, nigeria etc from competing in the AFCON and youth worldcup competition proper for the youth teams just bcos u want more representation from d southern part of africa, was anytin wrong with the previous format? No. He is killing african football in my opinion with some of his decisions and our FAs just follow lije mumu (ode) without saying anytin cos they are hapi to line dia pockets with moni (glorifies looters of commercial scale parading as football administrators). FIFA, UEFA, European clubs and coaches, as well as African FA chairman are attacking african football. Imagine a future VO9 not having a chance to feature in any afcon, isn’t dat criminal?