The Confederation of African Football (CAF, /ˈkæf/; French: Confédération Africaine de Football; Arabic: الإتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم) is the administrative and controlling body for African association football.
CAF represents the national football associations of Africa, runs continental, national, and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions.
CAF is one of the biggest of six continental confederations of FIFA. Although it is just three years younger than the UEFA, CAF still has a long way to go in order to improve the quality of the national and local competitions. CAF has been given 5 slots out of the 32 available since the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, this increased to 6 in 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, to include the hosts. The number of places returned to 5 for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
CAF was founded on 8 February 1957 in Khartoum, Sudan by the Egyptian, Ethiopian, South African and Sudanese FAs, following former discussions between the Egyptian, Somali, South African and Sudanese FAs earlier in 7 June 1956 in Avenida Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal. Its first headquarters was situated in Khartoum Sudan for some months until a fire outbreak in the offices of the Sudanese Football Association when the organization moved near Cairo. Youssef Mohammad was the first General Secretary and Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem the president. The administrative center since 2002 is located in 6th of October City, near Cairo. It was initially made up of 4 national associations. Currently there are 56 associations, 54 full members beside Zanzibar and Réunion Island as associates. (see the bottom of this page or List of CAF national football teams).
The current CAF President is Issa Hayatou.
Read more about Confederation Of African Football: 2010 Togo Expulsion Controversy, Summer Olympics Qualifiers, World Cup Participation and Results, FIFA Confederations Cup, CAF Best Footballers of The Century, CAF Golden Jubilee Best Players Poll, CAF's Anthem
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