CAF African Schools Football Championship Fact Sheet

With just a few weeks to go before the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) kicks off the third edition of the CAF African Schools Football Championship Continental Finals, CAFOnline takes a look at the growth and impact of the competition since its inaugural edition in 2022. 

About the CAF African Schools Football Championship
The CAF African Schools Football Championship is a programme focused on organised schools football. The aim is to sustain a competitive schools football competition that will encourage young boys and girls to play the game.

The programme includes support pillars to amplify the social impact of football and build the capacity of participating countries to manage football through training programmes.

Vision: To create a future in football for every boy and girl in Africa.

Mission: 

• To collaborate with schools and relevant government authorities to organise football-related programs across Africa through our Member Associations.
• To elevate the standard and quality of schools football across the African continent.

Purpose: To use the values of football to holistically develop African boys and girls on and off the pitch.

Pillars of the Programme:

• The Game: The CAF African Schools Football Championship is a football competition that will be contested by schools in Africa annually.

• Social Impact: The programme will include support projects to use football as a passion-point to address social issues in communities around participating schools.

• Capacity Building: The programme works closely with CAF Member Associations in strengthening their ability to exercise their mandate in football development.

·      The CAF African Schools Football Championship features boys and girls in the Under-15 age group.   

·      The 2023/24 edition reached 804,480 young players from 28,862 schools across 44 countries.

·      This was an increase of 40% from the inaugural edition.

·      A total of 72% of players who competed in 2023-24 travelled internationally for the first time as a result of participating in the CAF African Schools Football Championship.

CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMMES

Capacity Building Programmes focuses on skills and development, and run parallel to the CAF African Schools Football Championship Zonal Qualifiers and Continental Finals.

The purpose of the Capacity Building programmes is to ensure that learners are developed holistically, both on and off the pitch.

The programme also caters for school teachers who are the primary guardians of the learners during school hours.

Programmes offered within the Capacity Building sphere are: Young Referees Programme, Young Medical Officer Programme and Young Reporters Programme for aspiring media practitioners.

The programme also caters for teachers and guardians involved in schools football development as follows: CAF D-License Coaching Certificate to equip teachers with basic coaching education and knowledge, as well as the CAF Safeguarding Programme to foster safe and secure environment for football development.  

CAPACITY BUILDING IN NUMBERS

OTHER RESULTS FROM CONTINENTAL FINALS CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME 

ZONAL PHASE

Winners: USD 100 000

Runners-Up: USD 75 000

Bronze: USD 50 000

CONTINENTAL FINALS

Winners: USD 300 000

Runners-Up: USD 200 000

Bronze: USD 150 000

The prize monies of the CAF African Schools Football Championship were boosted by a USD 10-million donation by the Motsepe Foundation and have contributed to the refurbishment and building of much-needed infrastructure across several schools.

These include the refurbishment of classrooms, digging of boreholes, study centres, training pitches, cafeterias, purchasing of school buses and computers, and acquisition of sporting equipment from CAF Partners, PUMA.

The CAF African Schools Football Championships has been supported by some of African football’s greatest legends who have formed part of the various off the field development programmes.

African football greats who have graced the tournament include Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo), Daniel Amokachi (Nigeria), Lucas Radebe, Amanda Dlamini, (South Africa) and Abdi Kassim Sadalla (Tanzania).

As part of its innovative approach to youth football development and affording access, CAF distributes 800 PUMA match balls to all participating Member Associations who take part in the competition.