Mining magnate Motsepe wants to be re-elected to lead African football

CAPE TOWN: Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe will run for a second term as head of the continent’s football governing body when elections are held next year, CAF announced on Friday.

The South African billionaire mining magnate was elected unopposed in March 2021 after emerging as FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s preferred candidate.

“Following requests from numerous CAF Member Association Presidents, Zonal Union Presidents and key stakeholders, the CAF President, Dr. Patrice Motsepe, has finally agreed to stand as a candidate for the CAF presidential elections scheduled for March 2025,” said a short statement on the CAF website.

CAF did not provide details of who had asked Motsepe to run for re-election, but it has become common practice in both FIFA and CAF for candidates seeking re-election to request letters of support.

No other candidate has declared their intention to run for leadership of sport in Africa, although the deadline for nominations is four months before the election date.

Motsepe, 62, was the first black African to be included on Forbes’ list of billionaires and has a net worth of $3 billion, according to the magazine.

He has been involved in football since 2003, when he took a stake in South African club Mamelodi Sundowns, later becoming an owner and spending millions on players to help them become African champions in 2016.

He was picked by Infantino to lead African football after Madagascar’s previous president Ahmad Ahmad was expelled for corruption.

Motsepe is the seventh president in the history of African football’s governing body since its inception in 1956.

(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Toby Davis)