Confederation of African Football

The Confederation of African Football (CAF,  /ˈkæf/; French: Confédération Africaine de Football; Arabic: الإتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم‎) is the administrative and controlling body for African association football.

CAF represents the national football associations of Africa, runs continental, national, and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions.

CAF is one of the biggest of six continental confederations of FIFA. Although it is just three years younger than the UEFA, CAF still has a long way to go in order to improve the quality of the national and local competitions. CAF has been given 5 slots out of the 32 available since the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, this increased to 6 in 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, to include the hosts. The number of places returned to 5 for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

CAF was founded on 8 February 1957 in Khartoum, Sudan by the Egyptian, Ethiopian, South African and Sudanese FAs, following former discussions between the Egyptian, Somali, South African and Sudanese FAs earlier in 7 June 1956 in Avenida Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal. The headquarters were few months in Khartoum until a fire outbreak in the offices of the Sudanese Football Association when the organization moved near Cairo. Youssef Mohammad was the first General Secretary and Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem the president. Its administrative center since 2002 is in 6th of October City, near Cairo. It was initially made up of 4 national associations. Currently there are 55 associations, 53 full members beside Zanzibar  and Réunion Island as associates. (see the bottom of this page or List of CAF national football teams).

The current CAF President is Issa Hayatou.

History

Competitions

Africa Club Union Cup (ACUC):

Continental

The main competition for men's national teams is the African Cup of Nations, started in 1957. In 2009, CAF will be organising another competition for men's national teams, the African Nations Championship composed exclusively of national players playing in the national championship. CAF also runs national competitions at Under-21 and Under-17 levels. For women's national teams, CAF operates the CAF Women's Championship for senior national sides and the CAF Women's Under-20 Championship at under-20 level, since 2008 there is a CAF Women's Under-17 Championship for under-17 sides.

CAF also organizes the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup with UEFA for youth teams.

In futsal there is the African Futsal Championship.

In Beach soccer there is the CAF Beach Soccer Championship.

Also, CAF is responsible for organisation of the football events during the Pan African Games.

Club

CAF also runs the two main club competitions in Africa: the CAF Champions League was first held in 1964, and was known as the African Cup of Champions Clubs (or just African Cup) until 1997; and the CAF Confederation Cup, for national cup winners and high-placed league teams, was launched by CAF in 2004 as a successor to the African Cup Winners' Cup (begun in 1975). A third competition, the CAF Cup, started in 1992 and was absorbed into the CAF Confederation Cup in 2004.^[1]

The CAF Super Cup, which pits the winners of the Champions League against the winners of the CAF Confederation Cup (previously the winners of the Cup Winners' Cup), came into being in 1992.

2010 Togo Expulsion Controversy

CAF has been the subject of widespread media controversy^[2] and criticism^[3] following a decision to ban Togo from the next two Africa Cup of Nations matches,^[2] after Togo briefly withdrew then tried to rejoin the competition following an armed ambush on their bus which wounded and killed several passengers, including players.^[4] CAF's parent body FIFA has expressed sympathy to Togo,^[5] but has not commented on CAF's actions.

CAF Members

Confederation of African Football / Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) - 1957

53 Full Members

1 Associate Member

Regional Federations

CAF Regional Zones

CAF Zone 1 - Northern Zone

CAF Zone 2 - Western Zone A

CAF Zone 3 - Western Zone B

CAF Zone 4 - Central Zone

CAF Zone 5 - Central Eastern Zone

CAF Zone 6 - Southern Zone

Summer Olympics qualifiers

Men

Women

World Cup Participation and Results

Legend

• 1st – Champion
• 2nd – Runner-up
• 3rd – Third place
• 4th – Fourth place
• QF – Quarterfinals
• R16 – Round of 16 (since 1986: knockout round of 16)
• GS – Group Stage
•  •  — Did not qualify
•     — Did not enter
•     — Withdrew
•     — Banned
•     — Hosts

Men's World Cup Finals

The following CAF members have competed in the following FIFA World Cups. Teams are sorted by number of appearances.

a As Zaire.

• Firsts
  • First African team to qualify for the World Cup:  Egypt (1934)
  • First African team to win a match in the World Cup:  Tunisia (1978)
  • First African team to reach the knockout stage:  Morocco (1986)
  • First African team to reach the quarter-final:  Cameroon (1990)

Women's World Cup Finals

The following CAF members have competed in the following FIFA Women's World Cups. Teams are sorted by number of appearances.

• Q – Qualified for the 2011 Women's World Cup

Rankings

CAF overall ranking of African Clubs titles

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

Update as of 5 February 2011 in chronological order.

CAF Best Footballers of the Century

The voting to select the best of the century refers to three categories: male player,^[10] goalkeeper^[11] and female player,^[12] and is obtained from five different steps. The resulting best players and goalkeepers were honored during the "World Football Gala 1999". Voting process as explained by the IFFHS.

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 CAF's 50th anniversary, ordered according to an online poll.^[13]

CAF's Anthem

On September 18, 2007 the CAF launched a competition for all African composers to create its Anthem.^[14] The CAF anthem is a musical composition, without lyrics, which and reflect the cultural patrimony and African music. The duration of the anthem is 74 seconds. The chosen anthem was first published to the site on January 16, 2008. The usage of the anthem and yet it's composer are still unknown.

Announced September 18, 2007

See also

CAF competitions

CAF resolutions

Related articles

• History of CAF
• List of presidents of CAF
• List of first international of African national teams
• IFFHS Africa's best clubs of the 20th century

External links

• Confederation Of African Football official CAF site
• Confederation of African Football, Soccerlens.com. Retrieved: 09/10/2010.
• CAF video highlights
• The history of the Confederation Of African Football
• Listen to CAF Anthem CAF Anthem

References