Patrice Motsepe, New Confederation of African Football president, has raised the bar on Tuesday for national teams in Africa, stating that one of the continents must win the World Cup soon.
The 59-year-old wealthy South African in a press conference in Johannesburg said, “An African team must win the World Cup in the near future,”
Winning an unopposed election last Friday, Motsepe led a troubled CAF after undergoing a two-year ban over “governance issues,” which disallowed Malagasy Ahmad Ahmad, who was seeking reelection the second stint.
After his four years in office, the mining billionaire says if CAF “does not make real progress,” he would quit.
“We must stop being excessively pessimistic and negative (about the World Cup); there is no continent that has succeeded by dwelling on its failures.”
Not a single African team has exceeded the World Cup’s quarter-finals, and only Cameroon, in 1990, Senegal in 2002, and Ghana in 2010 had ever reached that far.
Africa did badly in the last World Cup in Russia three years ago, with five qualifiers from the continent, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia, eliminated after the group stages.
But Motsepe was upbeat as he spoke in South Africa for the first time since his ascension to the highest position in African football.
But the recently elected president is optimistic as he spoke in South Africa for the first time since e was elected as the president of CAF.
“I am confident African football will succeed, become self-sufficient, and the best in the world,” predicted the owner of 2016 CAF Champions League winners Mamelodi Sundowns.