FIFA plans to lift African Football with $1bn

FIFA plans to lift African Football with fund

By Sampson Adedeji

In order to raise Africa football to a reputable level, World football governing body FIFA has planned to raise a whopping sum of One billion dollars ($1 billion) to develop infrastructure, particularly building of most advance stadium which will be maintained by FIFA, BSNSports.com.ng can report.

BSN Sports can report that FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been on tour of 6 African countries in the past few days.

He made the statement in Lubumbashi during the 80th anniversary celebrations of DR Congo side TP Mazembe.

“We want to bring it (Africa) to the highest of heights and show the world the outstanding talent and amazingly gifted players your continent possesses,” he said.

“To do this, we want to implement a three pillar approach: refereeing, infrastructure and competitions, in close cooperation with Caf, all of its 54 member associations across Africa and other stakeholders.

“I am positive that we will make African football reach the top level where it should be because the quality and potential are definitely here.”

"One of the plans is for Fifa to create a professional and elite group of African referees who will be independent of administration and political bodies.

This follows on from the decision taken in the last executive committee meeting of Caf where a decision to implement reforms in the refereeing sector was approved.

On infrastructure, Infantino said Fifa would mobilize companies and entrepreneurs to raise around $1bn with the objective of building at least one stadium that complies with Fifa’s standards in each African country.

He said Fifa will focus on developing new and better competitions to generate more revenue so that the African clubs can retain talented players.