CAF Selects Ghana to Start Groundbreaking League Development Programme

Ghana has been selected among two countries to start a groundbreaking CAF pilot project to develop leagues in Africa in partnership with UEFA.

The West African country has been chosen together with Rwanda for the start of the League Development Programme designed to completely revive leagues across the continent.

With the support of the UEFA Assist programme, CAF is embarking on a project to develop the leagues across Africa in the quest to enhance the organizational structure and economic sustainability of the domestic competitions.

Dubbed “CAF & UEFA Assist League Development Programme”, the project aims to support Member Associations to professionalise their leagues and club development, by providing long term development for football.

Set to kick-off in September 2020, Ghana and Rwanda have been selected for the pilot project of the CAF & UEFA Assist League Development Programme, which includes eight training modules on key topics related to the development of leagues and operational planning leading to best practices.

The programme, a partnership between the two confederations, will promote dialogue with key stakeholders and support member associations with skills and techniques for standardized measures to guarantee the sustainability of domestic football leagues.

It will also focus on the appropriate competitive model, valorisation of football, financial sustainability and the organization of league competitions within the parameters of excellence.

The project includes an in-depth operational review of the competition structure of Member Associations, as well as the commercial, financial and governance aspects of the domestic league in order to strengthen the existing league system.

“The domestic leagues represent the most visible image of football in a member association and the success of clubs is directly linked to the strength of the league. It is therefore imperative to have standards in all aspects of the league in key areas such as Competitions, Governance, Operations, Communications and Income Generation,” said CAF Deputy General Secretary, Anthony Baffoe.

“We are delighted to be offering our knowledge, assistance and expertise to CAF in order to help them develop and reinforce domestic leagues across the continent,” said Zoran Laković, National Associations Director at UEFA.

“We have developed many fantastic initiatives with CAF over the past few years, and this latest project will strengthen the close collaboration between our confederations even more.”

In addition, a team of experts will carry out an operational review of the competition structure, branding, commercialisation, financial and governance aspects of the domestic league, to culminate in recommendations to guide the league through the support of a mentoring programme.

Launched in 2017, the UEFA Assist programme seeks to provide assistance to other confederations and their member associations in order to develop and strengthen football across the globe.

In 2018, with the support of UEFA Assist, CAF organized the historic GS Academy, to build the capacities of the General Secretaries of Member Associations and Zonal Unions marked by successful workshops in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Casablanca (Morocco), Djibouti (Djibouti) and Windhoek (Namibia).

By: Kannyiri Suburu Lucio