Confusion over launch date for African Football League

CAF confirmed at a meeting of their top officials in Abidjan on Thursday that the African Football League would kick off in October, but there is confusion over the starting date.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, a guest speaker in the Ivory Coast commercial capital, said the eagerly awaited debut of the club competition would be on Friday, 20 October.

But the official CAF website said the eight-team first edition would kick off one day later, on Saturday, 21 October.

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The African Football League is the new name for what was launched last year in Tanzania as the CAF Africa Super League.

CAF president Patrice Motsepe told South African public broadcaster SABC in June that the name change was necessary because some major sponsors had a problem with the original title.

"Some sponsors say the history of the Super League in Europe was not good and if you associate the name 'super' with a football competition, it has negative connotations," said Motsepe.

Speaking more recently to Qatar-based BeIN Sport, the CAF president said: "Our friends in Europe advised us not to use the expression 'super league'.

"(They based this advice on) negative associations with the recent failed attempt in European football."

A planned European Super League collapsed within 48 hours in 2021 after a backlash from fans, governments and players, which forced nine of the 12 teams who signed up to pull out.

The founding members were Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Little known

Infantino has repeatedly stressed that the situation in Africa is different from Europe with