Known as Confederation of African Football by AbbreviationFinder, CAF is the governing body of African football, founded in 1957. The founding members are: Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Africa. The 53-member organization is based in Egypt.
CAF represents the national football associations of Africa, directs continental, national and club competitions, and controls prize money, regulations and media rights to the competitions.
CAF is one of the largest of the six continental confederations of FIFA. Despite being only three years younger than UEFA, CAF still has a long way to go to improve the quality of national and local competitions. CAF has received five of the 32 seats available from the Cup of the World 1998 in France, this figure increased to six FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, to include the hosts. The number of seats returned to 5 for the 2014 World Cup.
History
The ideas that led to the birth of CAF were actually put into practice outside of Africa, in Lisbon, Portugal in June 1956. The Portuguese capital was the host of the FIFA Congress, and it was the African nations present (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Africa) who led the African Confederation to its baptism by taking advantage of that meeting to discuss matters of common interest to interest.
After the Congress, the four nations decided to meet again in Khartoum in February 1957 to draw up the draft statutes and discuss the realization of the first African Cup of Nations.
Earlier, the 1954 FIFA Congress in Bern, Switzerland had voted to recognize Africa as a confederation. This gave the continent the right to appoint its first representative to the FIFA Executive Committee and the member was Engineer Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem from Egypt.
The charter of the CAF was signed in Khartoum, Sudan, on June 8, 1957 and Abdallah Salem was appointed the first president of the Confederation.
On February 10, after the CAF constituent assembly, the Sudanese capital witnessed the birth of the first African Cup of Nations that Egypt won. This turned out to be the beginning of an exciting adventure that continues with countless unforgettable moments along the way to help define the characteristics and traits associated with African football.
Associations
All the independent states of Africa are represented in it with 53 federations as members, divided into six geographical zones.
| Zone 1 (North)· Algeria
· Egypt · Libya · Morocco · Tunisia |
Zone 2 (West A)· Cape Verde
· Gambia · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Liberia · Mali · Mauritania · Senegal · Sierra Leone |
Zone 3 (West B)· Benin
· Burkina faso · Cameroon · Ivory Coast · Ghana · Niger · Nigeria · Togo |
| Zone 4 (Central)· Chad
· Republic of Congo · Gabon · Equatorial Guinea · Central African Republic · Democratic Republic of Congo · Sao Tome and Principe |
Zone 5 (Central-East)· Burundi
· Eritrea · Ethiopia · Kenya · Rwanda · Somalia · Sudan · Tanzania · Uganda · Djibouti |
Zone 6 (South)· Angola
· Botswana · Comoros · Lesotho · Madagascar · Malawi · Mauricio · Mozambique · Namibia · Seychelles · South Africa · Swaziland · Zambia · Zimbabwe |
- The French island of Reunion has been a non-full associate member of the CAF since 1992, so its national teams do not participate in the African Cup of Nations, nor in the World Cup qualifying rounds, as they are not a member of FIFA.
Competitions
Selection tournaments
Men’s Tournaments
Confederation Tournaments
- CAF Classification for the Soccer World Cup
- African Cup of Nations
- African Nations Championship
- African Youth Championship
- U-17 African Championship
- African Futsal Championship
- CAF Beach Soccer Championship
Regional Tournaments
- COSAFA Cup
- Gossage Cup
- Senior Challenge Cup for East and Central Africa
- CECAFA Cup
- CECAFA U20 Cup
- CECAFA U17 Cup
- ECOWAS Cup
- CEMAC Cup (Central African Economic and Monetary Community)
- Amilcar Cabral Cup (Nations of Zone 2)
- Indian Ocean Games (African Islands Tournament located in the Indian Ocean)
Women’s Tournaments
Confederation Tournaments
- CAF Women’s Championship (qualifying tournament for the Women’s World Cup)
- CAN U20 Women
- CAN U17 Women
Regional Tournaments
- COSAFA Women’s Cup
Club tournaments
- CAF Champions League
- CAF Confederation Cup
- CAF Super Cup
- Champions For Africa
