African Super League 'would help development of African football' - Nigeria legend Finidi George

Finidi George believes a potential African Super League will help the development of football in Africa.

This idea for a closed shop of 20-24 elite clubs was first recommended in 2020 by Fifa boss Gianni Infantino, with the drive to generate close to $3bn in revenue.

For the Uefa Champions League and Africa Cup of Nations winner, the plan looks like a great one as that would see the best teams on the continent compete against each other regularly.

Even at this, he challenges the continent's football ruling body to take the initiative so that other continents would follow instead of the other way around.

"I think that would help the development of football in Africa," George told Goal.

"That being said, I think the African Super League is a good thing as we will have the best teams compete amongst themselves.

"There is nothing wrong about that. However, we don’t have to always copy what the Europeans are doing.

"Why must we always wait for someone elsewhere to start an initiative first before we start thinking?

"We should always be the first to initiate something that others would want to emulate." 

While talk of a potential Super League continues to spawn contrasting opinions, Caf president Patrice Motsepe claimed the idea was in discussion, stating that his organisation planned to learn from Uefa on how to execute it.

"We are assessing and in preliminary discussions to start an inclusive and broadly supported and beneficial Caf African Super League," the South African told media.

"We have been following the attempts by some top European clubs to form a Euro Super League and will learn from their experience and pitfalls."

Unlike the European Super League which never became a reality, seasoned football administrator Adam Mouktar Mohammed expressed his desire to see this plan come to fruition because of the advantages it would bring.

“That of the Europeans was not a bad idea either but I think the circumstances were quite different," the FCT boss told Goal.

“Uefa was already a power bloc and it would destabilise maybe their marketing, commercial rights and structure of the Champions League. That led to its rejection at that point.

“Looking at this from a football perspective, I think it would be a new rejigged approach to the Caf Champions League that exists.

“It would give it some life, probably there would be more money involved while marketing and sponsorship would be better.”