It was ten minutes to eleven p.m in Morocco when citizens received news that sent them celebrating in the streets. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) Appeal Board had declared them champions of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 58 days after the actual match was played. The ruling declared that Senegal forfeited the […]
The scenes in the AFCON final were a perfect encapsulation of how the Confederation of African Football is governed. In Rabat, Senegal and hosts Morocco were still locked at 0–0 when, deep into stoppage time, VAR dragged the referee to the monitor, a soft penalty was given to the home side, and in the ensuing
This presentation was delivered at the Play the Game 2025 conference in Tampere, Finland. It builds on my earlier analysis ‘Stadiums, Statecraft and the Diaspora Surge in African Football.‘ The script published below extends that analysis by adding China as another decisive player that becomes essential when African states cannot meet the demands of an
By 2050, more than one in four people on Earth will be African. This demographic reality shapes forecasts by The Economist that by 2030, half of all new entrants into the global labour force will come from Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, despite Africa experiencing a demographic boom, its football labour force is increasingly looking outward. At
Recently, East Africa has been abuzz with kerfuffles, drama and brouhaha that come with hosting an international football tournament in Africa. From presidential decrees of hefty player bonuses, ticketing conundrums blamed on reasons ranging from state suppression of dissent to tech mishaps, all that seemed like omnishambles was in fact a feature of the governance