17, March 2021
Football: “African team must win World Cup” declares new CAF chief Patrice Motsepe 0
Four days after being elected President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice Motsepe set out his plans to take the sport forward across the continent at a press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The 59 year-old South African mining billionaire assumed the role on Friday at a CAF General Assembly meeting in Morocco, without the need for a vote after a deal brokered by the world governing body FIFA saw his three challengers withdraw, leaving him as the only candidate.
Motsepe said that African football must aspire to have one of their national teams win the World Cup in the near future.
“During the next World Cup and also during the forthcoming World Cups, that African nations compete (in) and, if you look at what we said in the manifesto, it’s part of our plan that an African team must win the World Cup. I think let’s clap hands for that.
“We have to, we need to get the private sector to sponsor African football. We must increase the sponsorship for the AFCON Africa Cup of Nations), make it significantly more substantial. We must increase the sponsorship for the Champions League, the African Champions League.”
He also promised to be more proactive in bringing together the 56 member associations that make up the CAF.
As the head of CAF, Motsepe automatically becomes a FIFA vice president and a member of the FIFA Council.
Source: Africa News
20, March 2021
Champions League: Bayern Munich v Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid v Liverpool 0
Holders Bayern Munich will take on last year’s beaten finalists Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-finals while record 13-time winners Real Madrid meet Liverpool in a repeat of the 2018 final.
The draw also pitted Premier League leaders Manchester City against Borussia Dortmund, with Chelsea set to play Porto in the other tie.
Bayern defeated PSG 1-0 behind closed doors in Lisbon last August to win their sixth European Cup and remain the team to beat in Europe, having won 18 and drawn one of their 19 games in the Champions League since the beginning of last season.
The first leg is set to be played in Germany on April 6 or 7, with the return in Paris a week later.
Meanwhile, the meeting of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Real is another re-run of a recent final, with the Spaniards beating the Reds 3-1 in Kiev in 2018 to win the last of their record 13 titles to date.
Liverpool bounced back from that to lift the trophy for the sixth time in Madrid in 2019.
Klopp’s side are due to be away from home in the first leg, but it remains to be seen where that match will be played.
Atletico Madrid’s home leg against Chelsea in the last 16 ended up being moved to the Romanian capital Bucharest due to restrictions imposed on travel to Spain by British authorities.
The winner between Liverpool and Real will go onto a semi-final against either Chelsea or Porto, throwing up the possibility of an all-English last-four tie.
Liverpool beat Chelsea in the semi-finals in 2005 and again in 2007.
Unbeaten in 13 games since the appointment of Thomas Tuchel as coach in late January, Chelsea will be expected to get the better of Portuguese champions Porto, who ousted Juventus in the last 16.
However, that tie could also be relocated given travel restrictions between the United Kingdom and Portgual which prompted both legs of last month’s Europa League clash between Arsenal and Benfica to be played at neutral venues, in Italy and Greece.
Meanwhile City will be strong favourites against Dortmund, with the winner of that tie going through to a semi-final showdown with either Bayern or PSG.
Travel restrictions between the UK and Germany could also have an impact on City’s tie against Erling Braut Haaland’s Dortmund.
Both legs of City’s last-16 tie against Borussia Moenchengladbach were played in Budapest, as were both legs of Liverpool’s tie against RB Leipzig in the last round.
This season’s semi-finals are due to be played in late April and early May, with the final scheduled for May 29 in Istanbul.
(AFP)