Florentino Perez’s divisive scheme quickly fell apart – but two years later, Africa’s own version is ready to begin
When plans were unveiled for a closed-shop competition that could damage leagues across an entire continent, Europe gave a resounding ‘No’. Africa said, ‘Hell yes’.
As a result, the first African Football League gets underway this month – renamed from its original title of the African Super League, to protect its reputation. “Some sponsors say the history of the Super League in Europe wasn’t good and if you associate the name ‘super’ with a football tournament, it’ll have negative connotations,” explained CAF president Patrice Motsepe.
That’s probably sensible, given the breakaway European Super League launched in 2021 by Florentino Perez, Andrea Agnelli and chums attracted the ire of millions, causing it to collapse within a dizzying 48 hours. Even Liz Truss lasted longer.
FIFA supremo Gianni Infantino ‘strongly disapproved’ of the league, yet two years earlier he’d spoken publicly of his desire for a similar competition on another continent. “We have to take the 20 best clubs from Africa and put them in an African league,” he said in 2019. “Such a league could make at least $200 million in revenue, which would rank it among the top 10 in the world.”
That year, CAF had reluctantly cancelled a $1 billion television and marketing rights deal with French firm Lagardere Sports, leading to a financial shortfall. So, just three months after the European Super League proposal imploded, it was confirmed that the African version would indeed go ahead, despite controversy over teams being hand-picked and the possible devaluation of the existing African Champions League. There were fears, too, that clubs in the Super League would earn loads of money and therefore gain a huge advantage in their domestic divisions.
By 2022, the project had been modified to 24 teams, featuring promotion and relegation from the league, with a prize fund of $100m including a cool $11.6m for the overall winner – almost $8m more than for the African Champions League victors. Every CAF country would receive $1m each, while Saudi Arabia were – inevitably – said to be in talks over a $200m sponsorship deal.
Reports later suggested that arrangement didn’t materialise, and four months ago Infantino
