Mostsepe, Money and the ASL

In the Spring of 2021, the face of European club football seemed to be changing forever. Eleven of the world’s top clubs and Arsenal teamed up together and, fuelled by the power-hungry Florentino Perez, aimed to break away from the footballing pyramid and create a football league like we’ve never seen before. This was the money-making machine, this was the way to eternal happiness, this was the one that couldn’t fail. Until it did…

The African Super League

Africa has 54 countries and 1.3 billion people living on it, this is more than any other continent on the planet. Despite this, no team from the continent has won the World Cup with the best finish being from Morocco in the 2002 World Cup. In recent seasons many African football federations have begun to move away from paying large sums of money to foreign manager to lead their national teams and have instead begun to focus on bringing in former players to lead their national team. This strategy was seen in the last African Cup of Nations where over half of the managers in the event where native to the country they were managing. This coincided with enthralling matches, brilliant upsets and viewership numbers hitting astronomical figures. With the game on the rise on the continent the next step seemed to be club football.

Africa seems to have an abundance of football fans wherever you go in the continent. Walk on almost any street and you’ll see children playing barefoot with their friends, people crowding around a television to watch their favourite team or listening to a big game on handheld radios. Unfortunately, these big games are very rarely the national league of the country you’re in but instead of the Premier League. The promised land. Why do you think that the majority of dual nationality Africans living in Europe choose to play for the European nation.

Its’ the honour, it’s the prestige, it’s the valour and unfortunately, it’s the money.

But that’s beside the point.

African club football has been dominated by the North African nations. Morocco, Tunisia and especially Egypt have dominated the African Champions League since the turn of the 21st century. These three nations along with Algeria have passed around the trophy between themselves with the iron grip only being broken five times since 2001.  This African Super League aims to not only increase the quality and competitiveness of African football but to flood the continents footballing ecosystem with money it had never seen before. The total prize money for the current African Champions League is $12.5 million, a decent amount of money for a football competition. African Super League, however, plans to pay out a total of 100 million dollars over the competition, a game-changing amount for club football. This prize pool is funded by illustrious TV deals with stations that can be viewed across the continent and won by a fixed number of clubs every season.

Massive TV deals, top-quality football matches every week, breaking away from the football pyramid. It all sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it?

This Super League was supported by Patrice Motsepe and backed by Gianni Infantino, FIFA President and minion-in-chief. Hopefully you know who Gianni Infantino is but the name Patrice Motsepe may not be as familiar. Mr Motsepe is the owner and founder of a company called African Rainbow Minerals who mine Manganese, Coal, Platinum and other money-making materials from the earth in South Africa. This business was a massive success and in 2008 he became Africa’s first black billionaire, a massive achievement for someone who didn’t have the same spoiled childhood that many 21st century South African businessmen had. Motsepe is also very intelligent when it comes to the art of collecting power and money, his wife is a fashion entrepreneur and amongst the richest women in South Africa. He also happens to be the brother-in-law to the South African president.

Connections in African politics are an important thing to have, this lesson would prove vital as he began his dive into the sporting world. By 2004, Motsepe had become well-known figure in his home country and he used this to his advantage and increased his ownership of Mamelodi Sundowns from 51% to 100%. Sundowns won the league three times in a row between 1997 and 2000 but had begun to suffer a decline in form prior to Motsepe’s arrival. Two 10th placed finishes in the 2002/03 and 2003/04 season are the clubs’ lowest finishes in South Africa’s Premier Soccer League but they’ve since gone on to win seven more titles since then along with two second place finishes. The club’s crowning moment came in 2016 as they won their first African Champions League, defeating Egyptian side Zamalek 3-1 over two legs.

In 2021, Motsepe decided to further tighten his hold on African football and become president of CAF, African Football’s governing body. He was quickly supported by current president of FIFA Gianni Infantino, breaking FIFA’s rules when it comes to neutrality in elections. As you would expect, Motsepe won the election and the rest is history. The greatest revamp in a continental football will be gracing the continent of Africa in August 2023.

The format was launched in a meeting held in Tanzania which was attended by FIFA President Infantino. In this launch meeting Patrice Motsepe was quoted saying “Football is about finance. It is about having a product and the commercial backing for it.” Throughout the meeting the main focus didn’t seem to be increasing competitiveness or the wellbeing of fans and players but instead it was about money. And that shouldn’t be a surprise.

Commercialisation is rife amongst football. The game that our grandfathers played in their back gardens as children isn’t the same anymore. Everything about the game, from the balls themselves to me and you are money making objects. There are some people who don’t see you as people and it’s about them you wake up to reality and see what’s in front of you. The African Super League isn’t the first step to taking the soul of football. Company names on football kits, multi-million-pound deals with federations, minimalistic club logo, football isn’t just a game anymore. It’s a business.

In conclusion, the African Super League is going ahead because it enriches the 0.1% and fits their plans for what they want football to be. A game that is played and watched for their benefit. Many people who aren’t interested in sports will be wondering how it affects them and why I care so much. I’ll tell you how it affects you. Right now, the problems are in Golf and football. Next time the problem will be something a bit closer to you, maybe it will be the benefits system or maybe it will be council housing. Then finally it’s going to be to you, your health and your children.

And there’s nothing you can do about it.