African Network For Peace And Good Governance (ANPG) has written to Gianni Infantino, the president of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), requesting the allocation of an additional 4 spots to the African continent prior to the 2026 World Cup.
The demand was made in an open letter to the FIFA President by the ANPG Executive Director, Bede Aneke, and it was made available to newsmen in Enugu on Monday.
Aneke highlighted that the football organization had continued to allot just 5 spots to Africa, CAF, in a letter headlined “An request to raise number of slots given to Africa in the FIFA World Cup.”
He argued that the figure was unfair to Africa in comparison to other continents, in addition to being unsatisfactory.
Aneke stated that he and other African football supporters are requesting that the continent of Africa be awarded at least four extra spots in the four-year World Cup, for a total of nine berths, starting with the 2026 edition of the competition.
According to him, FIFA’s recent record showed that FIFA has 208 member associations (countries) from six different Confederations, namely UEFA, CAF, AFC, CONCAF, CONMEBOL and OFC.
“Out of this number, Africa has the largest number with 54 member associations, followed by Europe (UEFA) that has 52 member associations.
“Asia (AFC) has 46 member associations; North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCAF) has 35 member associations; South America (CONMEBOL) has just 10 member associations while Oceania (OFC) has 11 member associations,” he said.
He further stated that, “It is surprising that Africa has continued to be under represented in FIFA World Cup in terms of unbefitting slots to participate in the four year world tournament.
“Under the present arrangement, 32 teams participate in the World Cup and Europe has the highest number of representation with 13 teams.”
Aneke voiced displeasure over the fact that while AFC (Asia), CONCAF, and CONMEBOL, which have far fewer member associations, receive 5 and 4 spots respectively, while Africa (CAF), which has the most FIFA member associations, only has 5 places.
The director claimed that many Africans thought the spots allocated to them were unfair and a part of the continent’s ostensibly long-standing marginalization.
He mentioned that Infantino and the presidents of the six FIFA-affiliated confederations recently convened in Zurich and decided to increase the number of participating teams in the World Cup from 32 to 48.
“Under the proposed expansion, UEFA gets three more slots, thereby taking Europe’s total slot to 16 while CAF (Africa) will be given four more slots, making it up to 9 slots for the continent.
“AFC gets a total of 8 slots; CONCAF and CONMEBOL will enjoy 6 slots each,” he stated.
Aneke urged Infantino to make sure that the 9 slots for Africa are awarded and that the continent is not taken advantage of when the Bureau’s expansionist report is presented to the FIFA Council for approval in May 2022.
“This is necessary to give Africa, which parades an array of global stars, a sense of belonging and justice in the decisions and activities of the World’s football governing body.
“Anything short of this will be unacceptable as it portrays a clear unfair treatment and discrimination against Africa.
“If more and corresponding slots are given to Africa, it will make the World Cup more competitive and the real World Cup it ought to be as the present arrangement favours Europe to win the tournament,” he appealed.