Patrice Motsepe didn’t smile. The South African billionaire, often seen beaming in photo ops with dignitaries, wore the look of a man who had just balanced a very precarious scale. “We have been enormously successful,” he told the 47th CAF Ordinary General Assembly. Three years ago that might have been dismissed as bluster. This time, he had the receipts.
For years, the Confederation of African Football was an organisation defined by its deficits — a cash-poor giant sitting on a goldmine of talent. Motsepe, a mining magnate who built his fortune before turning to football as the owner of Mamelodi Sundowns, arrived as CAF President with a plan to put the continental body’s house in order.
The turnaround
The strategy was bold. The settlement with Lagardère — $50 million paid in late 2024 — was painful but necessary: a break fee to regain control of the continent’s commercial inventory, which could then be sliced, diced and sold for significantly more than the fixed annuity Lagardère provided. The gamble paid off. Revenue from competitions surged to $148.62 million in 2023–24, up from $75.86 million the previous year, and commercial revenues exploded to $125.2 million. The jump from a $4 million profit at AFCON 2019 to more than $80 million from AFCON 2023 represented a 1,900% increase in commercial efficiency.
Money talks
Under Motsepe, CAF aggressively inflated prize money: the AFCON winner now takes home $7 million, a 40% increase, with the total pot at $32 million across 24 nations, and far higher payouts for the lower tiers. He shattered the old broadcasting duopoly of Canal+ and MultiChoice by empowering Togo-based New World TV across 46 countries, forcing the incumbents into a competitive bidding war.
From the conference rooms of Kinshasa to the VIP boxes of Rabat, Motsepe got CAF’s house in order.
The figures still trail the riches of European competitions — the Euro 2024 winner took home €8 million — but the trajectory is unmistakable. African football is closing the gap. Under Patrice Motsepe, the continental game is, at last, open for business.
Originally published in Football Business Africa, Issue 03 · Oct–Dec 2025.
