Confederation Of African Football

The Confederation of African Football, or CAF for short (french: link=yes, Confédération Africaine de Football, ar, link=yes, الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam), is the administrative and controlling body for association football, futsal and beach soccer in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan by the national football associations of Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa and Sudan, following formal discussions between the aforementioned associations at the FIFA Congress held on 7 June 1956 at Avenida Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal.

One of the six continental confederations of world football governing body, FIFA, CAF represents the national football associations of Africa, runs national team and club continental competitions and controls the prize money, regulations and broadcast rights to such competitions. CAF will be allocated 9 spots in the FIFA World Cup starting from 2026 and could have an opportunity of 10 spots with the addition of an intercontinental play-off tournament involving six teams to decide the last two FIFA World Cup places (46+2).

The headquarters of CAF was situated in Khartoum for within the first months of formation until a fire outbreak in the offices of the Sudanese Football Association when the organization was moved near Cairo, Egypt. Youssef Mohamad was the first general secretary and Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem, the first president. Since 2002, the administrative center is situated in 6th of October City in Cairo, Egypt. CAF currently has 54 member associations which are full members, while Zanzibar and Réunion are associate members (see the CAF Members and Zones section below). The current president is Patrice Motsepe from South Africa, who was elected on 12 March 2021 in an unopposed elections held in Rabat, Morocco.

History

The CAF Anthem

On 18 September 2017, CAF launched a competition for all African composers to create its anthem without lyrics to reflect the cultural patrimony and the music of Africa. The chosen anthem, whose composer are to this day unknown and is 74 seconds in length, was first published to the site on 16 January 2008 and it is the entry song for every official CAF competition match. It is also used for every official competition match of the sub-confederations of CAF including WAFU, COSAFA and CECAFA.

Current Leadership

Sources:

* Frederick Acheampong, General Coordinator

CAF members and zones

Members

Competitions

CAF competitions

National teams:
;Men
* Africa Cup of Nations
* African Nations Championship
*Africa U-23 Cup of Nations
*Africa U-20 Cup of Nations
* Africa U-17 Cup of Nations
*African Schools Championship
* Africa Futsal Cup of Nations
*African Youth Olympic Futsal Qualifying Tournament
* Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations
;Women
* Women's Africa Cup of Nations
* African U-20 Women's World Cup qualification
* African U-17 Cup of Nations for Women
*African Schools Championship for Girls

Clubs:
*Africa Super League
* CAF Champions League
* CAF Confederation Cup
* CAF Super Cup
*CAF Women's Champions League
;''Defunct''
*'' African Cup Winners' Cup''
*''CAF Cup''

Inter Continental:
;''Defunct''
*'' Afro-Asian Cup of Nations''
*'' Afro-Asian Club Championship''
*'' UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup''

Regional:
* CECAFA Cup
* WAFU Nations Cup
*Amilcar Cabral Cup
* COSAFA Cup
* CEMAC Cup
*UNIFFAC Cup (U-17)
*UNAF U-23 Tournament

International

For men's national teams, the main competition is the Africa Cup of Nations, which began in 1957. In 2009, the CAF began organizing another competition for men's national teams, the African Nations Championship, this time featuring players playing in their respective national leagues. CAF also runs national competitions at Under-20 and Under-17 levels, which also serve as qualification tournaments for the FIFA U-20 World Cup and the FIFA U-17 World Cup respectively.

For women's national teams, CAF operates competitions serving as qualification tournaments for the related FIFA-organized tournaments which launched at the exact same year they began formation. As of 2022, the Women's Africa Cup of Nations, launched in 1991 for senior national teams, qualifies 4 teams to the FIFA Women's World Cup and crowns a champion. Both the African U-20 Women's World Cup qualification tournament, launched in 2002 and the African U-17 Cup of Nations for Women, launched in 2008, each crowns no champion but instead qualifies 2 teams to compete at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup respectively.

Club

CAF also runs the two main club competitions in Africa: the CAF Champions League, first held in 1964 as the ''African Cup of Champions Clubs'' (or just African Cup) and rebranded in 1997 for the champions of African leagues and the runners-up league-finished teams of the top 12 ranked national associations; and the CAF Confederation Cup, launched in 2004 as a merger of the African Cup Winners' Cup, which begun in 1975, and a third competition, the CAF Cup, which started in 1992, for national cup winners and the 3rd-placed league-finished teams of the top 12 ranked national associations.

The CAF Super Cup, which pits the winners of the CAF Champions League against the winners of the CAF Confederation Cup (previously the winners of the African Cup Winners' Cup), was launched in 1993.

The Afro-Asian Club Championship was jointly organized with AFC between the winners of the CAF Champions League and the winners of the AFC Champions League. The last Afro-Asian Club Championship took place in 1998.

The CAF Women's Champions League was founded on 12 September 2020, involving the champions of CAF's sub-confederation qualification tournaments for women's club teams.

Current title holders

Competition Winners

Sponsorship

In October 2004, South African telecommunications giant, MTN, contracted a 4-year deal to sponsor CAF competitions worth US$12.5 million, which was the biggest sponsorship deal in African sporting history at that time.

CAF opened new sponsorship callouts when MTN's contract expired and French telecommunications giant, Orange scooped it up in July 2009, signing an 8-year comprehensive long-term undisclosed deal to sponsor CAF competitions with a value of €100 million.

On 21 July 2016, French energy and petroleum giant, Total S.A., replaced Orange as the main sponsor with an 8-year sponsorship package from CAF for a value of €950 million to support its competitions. Total rebranded as TotalEnergies in 2021, although its sponsorship with CAF continued under the new name.

The current main CAF sponsors are:
*1xBet
*TikTok
* TotalEnergies
* Orange

FIFA World Rankings

Overview

Historical leaders

;Men's

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id:Ghana value:rgb(1, 1, 1)
id:Morocco value:rgb(0.73, 0.07, 0.10)
id:Nigeria value:rgb(0, 0.53, 0.32)
id:Senegal value:rgb(0, 0.52, 0.22)
id:SouthAfrica value:rgb(0.99, 0.71, 0.08)
id:Tunisia value:rgb(1, 1, 1)
id:Zambia value:rgb(0, 0.5, 0)

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from:25/07/1995 till:22/08/1995 shift:(20,-10) $labelTunisia
from:22/08/1995 till:19/09/1995 shift:(20,-5) $labelEgypt
from:19/09/1995 till:17/10/1995 shift:(20,-5) $labelNigeria
from:17/10/1995 till:21/11/1995 shift:(20,-5) $labelEgypt
from:21/11/1995 till:19/12/1995 shift:(20,-5) $labelTunisia
from:19/12/1995 till:24/01/1996 shift:(20,-5) $labelIvoryCoast
from:24/01/1996 till:21/02/1996 shift:(20,-5) $labelGhana
from:21/02/1996 till:22/05/1996 shift:(20,-5) $labelZambia
from:24/04/1996 till:22/05/1996 shift:(20,-5) color:Ghana width:11 text:"Ghana / Zambia"
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from:18/12/1996 till:27/02/1997 shift:(20,-5) $labelSouthAfrica
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from:18/07/2001 till:13/02/2002 shift:(20,-5) $labelTunisia
from:13/02/2002 till:06/10/2004 shift:(20,-5) $labelCameroon
from:06/10/2004 till:15/06/2005 shift:(20,-5) $labelNigeria
from:15/06/2005 till:20/07/2005 shift:(20,-5) $labelCameroon
from:20/07/2005 till:12/09/2005 shift:(20,-5) $labelEgypt
from:12/09/2005 till:21/11/2005 shift:(20,-5) $labelCameroon
from:17/10/2005 till:21/11/2005 shift:(20,-5) color:Nigeria width:11 text:"Cameroon / Nigeria"
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from:13/02/2008 till:04/06/2008 shift:(20,-5) $labelGhana
from:04/06/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift:(20,-5) $labelCameroon
from:01/07/2009 till:16/10/2009 shift:(20,-5) $labelIvoryCoast
from:16/10/2009 till:03/02/2010 shift:(20,-5) $labelCameroon
from:03/02/2010 till:02/02/2011 shift:(20,-5) $labelEgypt
from:02/02/2011 till:29/06/2011 shift:(20,-5) $labelGhana
from:29/06/2011 till:05/06/2014 shift:(20,-5) $labelIvoryCoast
from:05/06/2014 till:05/11/2015 shift:(20,-5) $labelAlgeria
from:05/11/2015 till:03/03/2016 shift:(20,-5) $labelIvoryCoast
from:03/03/2016 till:07/04/2016 shift:(20,-5) $labelCapeVerde
from:07/04/2016 till:15/09/2016 shift:(20,-5) $labelAlgeria
from:15/09/2016 till:24/11/2016 shift:(20,-5) $labelIvoryCoast
from:24/11/2016 till:09/02/2017 shift:(20,-5) $labelSenegal
from:09/02/2017 till:16/10/2017 shift:(20,-5) $labelEgypt
from:16/10/2017 till:23/11/2017 shift:(20,-5) $labelTunisia
from:23/11/2017 till:18/01/2018 shift:(20,-5) $labelSenegal
from:18/01/2018 till:20/09/2018 shift:(20,-5) $labelTunisia
from:16/08/2018 till:20/09/2018 shift:(20,-5) color:Senegal width:11 text:"Senegal / Tunisia"
from:20/09/2018 till:29/11/2018 shift:(20,-5) $labelTunisia
from:29/11/2018 till:end shift:(20,-5) $labelSenegal

;Women's

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from:01/01/2003 till:27/09/2019 shift:(20,-3) text:"Nigeria" color:NGA

Team of the Year

Other rankings

CAF overall ranking of African clubs by titles

The following clubs are the top 10 clubs in CAF competitions.

''Update as of 3 August 2022 in chronological order.''

By country

The following table lists all the countries whose clubs have won at least one CAF competition. Egyptian clubs are the most successful, with a total of 41 titles. Egyptian clubs hold a record number of wins in the African Cup of Champions Clubs/CAF Champions League (16), the now-defunct African Cup Winners' Cup (8), the CAF Super Cup (12) and the now-defunct Afro-Asian Club Championship (3), followed by Tunisian clubs with 24 titles and they have the most victories in the now-defunct CAF Cup (4). In third place overall, Moroccan clubs have secured 23 titles and they have the most victories in the CAF Confederation Cup (7).

;Key:

CAF overall ranking of African clubs

Rankings are calculated by the CAF based on points gathered by African teams throughout their participation in international club tournaments organized by either FIFA or CAF since the establishment of the first African Cup of Champions Clubs in 1964.

Men's Futsal

Per 5 April 2022:

a number between brackets is the rank of the previous week.
(*)= Provisional ranking (played at least 10 matches)
(**)= Inactive for more than 24 months

Women's Futsal

Beach soccer national teams

Rankings are calculated by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). Top ten
last updated 12 March 2018

Major tournament records

;''Legend''
* – Champions
* – Runners-up
* – Third place
* – Fourth place
*QF – Quarter-finals (1934–1938, 1954–1970, and 1986–present: knockout round of 8)
*R2 — Round 2 (1974–1978, second group stage, top 8; 1982: second group stage, top 12; 1986–present: knockout round of 16)
*R1 — Round 1 (1930, 1950–1970 and 1986–present: group stage; 1934–1938: knockout round of 16; 1974–1982: first group stage)
*''Q'' — Qualified for upcoming tournament
* – Qualified but withdrew
* – Did not qualify
* – Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned
* – Hosts
* – Not affiliated in FIFA

For each tournament, the flag of the host country and the number of teams in each finals tournament (in brackets) are shown.

FIFA World Cup

;''Firsts''
*1934: first African team to qualify for the World Cup
*1970: first African team to draw a match in the World Cup
*1978: first African team to win a match in the World Cup
*1982: first African team to win two matches in the World Cup
*1986: first African team to qualify for two consecutive World Cups
*1986: first African team to reach the knockout stage (round of sixteen)
*1990: first African team to reach the knockout stage (quarter-finals)
*1994 and 1998: first African team to top a group stage and reach the knockout stage (round of sixteen) in two consecutive World Cups
*2002: first African team to reach the knockout stage (quarter-finals) further on the World Cup debut
*2010: first African team to host the World Cup
*2014: & first African teams to reach the knockout stage (round of sixteen) simultaneously in the World Cup
*2022: first African team to reach the knockout stage (semi-finals), taking the fourth place

FIFA Women's World Cup

Teams are sorted by number of appearances.

Olympic Games For Men

Olympic Games For Women

Africa Cup of Nations

Women's Africa Cup of Nations

FIFA U-20 World Cup

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup

FIFA U-17 World Cup

*Note 1: Original hosts Peru were stripped of the rights to host the 2019 edition in February that year.

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

FIFA Futsal World Cup

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup

Former tournaments

FIFA Confederations Cup

CAF Best Footballers of the Century

The voting to select the best of the century refers to three categories: male player, goalkeeper and female player and is obtained from five different steps. The resulting best players and goalkeepers were honored during the "World Football Gala 1999".

CAF Best Player of the Century

CAF Best Goalkeeper of the Century

CAF Best Women's Footballer of the Century

CAF Golden Jubilee Best Players poll

In 2007, CAF published the list of top 30 African players who played in the period from 1957 to 2007, as part of the celebration of the golden jubilee or 50th anniversary of the foundation of CAF, ordered according to an online poll.

:1. Roger Milla
:2. Mahmoud El Khatib
:3. Hossam Hassan
:4. Samuel Eto'o
:5. Abedi Pele
:6. George Weah
:7. Didier Drogba
:8. Nwankwo Kanu
:9. Rabah Madjer
:10. Kalusha Bwalya
:11. Michael Essien
:12. Augustine Okocha
:13. Saleh Selim
:14. Hacène Lalmas
:15. Benni McCarthy
:16. El Hadji Diouf
:17. Noureddine Naybet
:18. Rashidi Yekini
:19. Hany Ramzy
:20. Hassan Shehata
:21. Lucas Radebe
:22. Tarak Dhiab
:23. Mohammed Timoumi
:24. Anthony Yeboah
:25. Salif Keita
:26. Karim Abdul Razak
:27. Samuel Kuffour
:28. Lakhdar Belloumi
:29. Rigobert Song
:30. Nasr Eddin "Jaksa" Abbas

CAF resolutions

Awards:
* CAF Awards
* African Footballer of the Year
* CAF Clubs of the 20th Century

Qualifications:
* CAF 5-Year Ranking

International top goalscorers

This table is for players with 30 or more goals for a CAF national team. Players in bold are still active at international level.

See also

*African nations at the FIFA World Cup
* Football in Africa
*History of CAF

*Oceania association football club records and statistics
* International Federation of Association Football (FIFA)
*Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
* Oceania Football Confederation (OFC)
* Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)
* Confederation of South American Football (CONMEBOL)
* Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)
* List of association football competitions
*List of association football sub-confederations
* List of presidents of CAF
* List of first international of African national teams
* List of CAF club competition winners
* List of CAF club competition winning coaches
*List of African national football team managers
* Women's football in Africa
*List of top international men's football goal scorers by country
* List of men's footballers with 50 or more international goals
*List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps

Notes

References

External links

*
Overview of CAF and its competitions
via Soccerlens.com
The CAF Anthem
since 2007

{{DEFAULTSORT:Confederation Of African Football


Sports organizations established in 1957
Foot
FIFA confederations
1957 establishments in Africa