The Africa Cup of Nations could be hosted in China, USA or Qatar in 2023 and teams, particularly, from the Asian Football Confederation may feature at the tournament.
These are just two of several bold recommendations made at the two-day CAF Symposium that was concluded on Wednesday.
The new CAF leadership invited some of Africa’s biggest names to a round table where reforms for the future of African football were discussed.
President of FIFA Gianni Infantino was also present at the Symposium which held in Morocco.
The event started on Tuesday and was the biggest football gathering in terms of the perspective debated.
Infantino had also mooted the need for the Continent’s governing body to consider changing the January date of the Nations Cup.
Brila.net gathered through Ghanaian BBC Sports Correspondent, Micheal Oti Adjei that CAF will consider increasing the number of participating teams for the Afcon and CAF Champions League to optimise revenues from the competitions.
This Afcon expansion a lot more intriguing than I first thought.
3 or 4 invited teams, cld be staged in places like China or Qatar. Ah pic.twitter.com/wnlmColya0— Michael Oti Adjei (@OtiAdjei) July 19, 2017
CAF has not issued a statement on the Symposium, but recommendations made – at this and future fora – Â will be deliberated by the General Congress, Ahmad had assured during his campaign.
Some of the recommendations made include:
*New AFCON format to optimise the revenues: based on the CAF Marketing and TV Presentation, the idea of increasing to 24 teams from 16 teams for the AFCON Final Tournament was recommended by the majority of the attendees.
*The 2nd recommendation agreed on is to have from 20 to 21 African teams in addition to 3 to 4 invitees from other continents.
*The possibility to host the AFCON Final Tournament by Countries outside the African Continent like China, USA, or Qatar to host the AFCON 2023 since all the required infrastructure will be already implemented for the FIFA WC 2022
*New format was recommended as well to be implemented for the CAF Champions League, increasing the number of engaged teams from 16 to 32 in the group stage, in order to optimise the revenues from this competition.
*It was also recommended by the attendees to put in place a team of experts including expertise from media right holders, sponsors etc to explore all potential revenues that may be generated.
*Encourage the national associations and clubs to upgrade the infrastructure implemented such as the pitch area, hospitality zones, security measures etc.
