The General Secretary of Confederation of African Football (CAF), Veron Mosengo-Omba, has revealed plans to decentralise football administration on the continent.
Mosengo-Omba said talks were underway between Africa’s football governing body and FIFA to directly finance some of the activities of the zonal bodies instead of routing such support through CAF.
He expressed the belief that devolving more powers to the zonal unions would help accelerate football development in Africa while giving the chance to the regions to flourish.
The CAF General Secretary revealed the plan during the 14th General Assembly of West Africa Football Union B (WAFU) in Accra, Ghana on Saturday.
The former Chief Officer of the FIFA Member-Associations (MAs) Division was attending his first meeting of a zonal union in Africa since being appointed CAF General Secretary two months ago.
All the seven member-associations of WAFU B were meeting in Accra to deliberate the activities of the zonal body for the past year and to plan the activities for the upcoming season.
Mosengo-Omba said giving more powers to the zonal unions to carry out their activities would help to accelerate the development of the game on the continent.
“The regional zones will play a major role for CAF in the development of football on the entire continent because it is a necessary avenue for improvement,” he told the meeting of the leaders of the West African Football Union.
“We don’t have to wait for CAF officials to come directly from Cairo to implement plans.
“We are going to strengthen the unions with the necessary seminars and workshops to ensure that the zones can directly implement them in partnership with the Member-Associations.”
The outgoing President of WAFU B, Djibrilla Hima Hamidou, praised the new CAF General Secretary for the initiative to amplify the importance and support for the zonal unions.
He revealed that the DR Congo native originated the plans from his days with FIFA.
Mosengo-Omba initially joined FIFA in 2016 as Chief Member-Associations Officer with responsibility for Africa and the Caribbean.
That was when he mooted the plan for direct financial support for the activities of the zonal bodies.
The decision resulted in the uplifting of the zonal bodies in Africa as new competitions for both males and females have been created and consistently played for the past four years.
This has also invigorated the various regional bodies across Africa and the world.
“When Veron was working for FIFA, he started this idea of giving financial support to the zonal bodies.
“This helped all the zones in Africa to start new competitions which have now become an important constant feature on our calendar,” Hamidou said.
“The new vision of expanding and entrenching the support for the zonal bodies shows that the new CAF administration is determined to give more powers and more responsibilities to help accelerate the progress we have seen in our region.”
The concept led to the setting up of various men’s and women’s competitions, including the recent Under-17 and Under-20 regional tournaments which served as qualifiers for the CAF youth tournaments.
Meanwhile, the first women clubs’ championship for WAFU B will be played in Cote d’Ivoire in July.
This is part of the support the zonal body has received from FIFA and CAF to be able to carry out competitions in their region.