The new CAF secretary general, Dr Samson Adamu, has made grassroots football, player pathways and upskilling referees and coaches his top priorities.
Dr Samson Adamu is the new CAF secretary general, according to the Guardian Nigeria. Before this appointment, he spent eight years as the continental body’s director of competitions, tournaments and events.
His stated priorities are the development of grassroots football, player pathways and upskilling referees and coaches, according to the Nigerian daily.
Competition experience
Those eight years at the helm of CAF’s competitions, tournaments and events add to his knowledge of the institution, according to the Guardian Nigeria.
Adamu describes competitions as CAF’s core business, according to the same daily. He does not present his priorities as an alternative to that role.
Training and refereeing on the agenda
The new secretary general, however, places his priorities further upstream. Developing grassroots football, player pathways and upskilling referees and coaches are at the top of his agenda, according to the Nigerian daily.
“You cannot have good football without proper grassroots and player pathways, and the referees and the coaches and all of the things,” he told the Guardian Nigeria.
He thus puts referees and coaches on the same footing as player pathways.
Africa, Nigeria and the calendar
The new secretary general also links the continent’s rise to his country’s. “If African football grows, Nigerian football grows also at the same time. And Nigerian football cannot grow by itself; it needs to grow also by competing with all the other African nations,” he told the Guardian Nigeria.
On Tuesday, he was received at the Nigerian presidency, with the openly expressed support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima, according to the Guardian Nigeria.
Key dates are coming up: the CAF General Assembly will be held in Abuja and will bring together representatives of the 54 member associations. The CAF Awards are announced for Lagos, according to the Nigerian daily. The dates of these two events have not been specified.