CAF approves financial support member associations

CORONAVIRUS & SPORTS

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a huge financial loss to many sports disciplines, including football.

With the suspension of sports activities, that means many stakeholders, especially the players and coaches, can no longer earn a living since most depend on that.

This why CAF on Thursday approved the immediate distribution of financial grants to member associations, including FUFA, to support the management of football  at the domestic level hugely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of $10.8m (about sh40b) will be wired to the 54 members on the continent as part of a relief plan to reduce on the financial crisis within the African football communities during these unprecedented times.

"Due to the fast-spread of COVID-19, African MAs [member associations] have suspended all domestic competitions, which has brought about huge financial burdens on their shoulders. CAF has thus decided to waive the eligibility requirements to access the annual grants, so all MAs can benefit during this difficult period," said CAF President Ahmad Ahmad.

Ugandan football is set to benefit

CAF also revealed that it is assessing the opportunity of additional financial support to members for the resumption and organisation of their domestic competitions.

The CAF grant comes two weeks since they comunicated the distribution of $3.5m to the teams that were taking part in interclub competitions for the 2019/20 season.

The CAF Champions League and  Confederation Cup were suspended after the quarter-final matches due to COVID-19.

CAF is also working with the relevant authorities, including the Wealth Health Organization (WHO) and FIFA on the impact of the virus on the continent, and will announce developments to our competitions at the appropriate time.

The financial support towards member associations comes at time when a few weeks ago topflight teams and its secretariat requested for support.

In the letter addressed to FUFA, each club was requesting for funding of sh60m while the Uganda Premier League secretariat wanted sh68.6m. The Ugandan topflight was targeting to take care of rent, communications in form of internet, staff salaries, general office expenses, fuel, stationery, among others.

While addressing the football fraternity, FUFA president Moses Magogo urged clubs to be patient since they also informed FIFA to support them.