The African Football League (AFL) was a continental men's club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

competition organized by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

(CAF). It was announced on 28 November 2019 by

Gianni Infantino Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino (); (born 23 March 1970) is a Swiss-Italian Association football, football Administrator (business), administrator and the president of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) since 26 Febr ...

, president of

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

and it was initially launched as the Africa Super League on 10 August 2022 in Tanzania and was to include twenty-four elite African clubs with a promotion and relegation system, but was scaled down to eight teams for its inaugural edition in 2023 that won by

Mamelodi Sundowns Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premiership, the first tier of South African football league syste ...

. The competition has not been played since the 2023 season.

History

launched the tournament during a visit to the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

to celebrate the 80th anniversary of

TP Mazembe Tout Puissant Mazembe, commonly referred to as TP Mazembe, is a Congolese professional association football, football club based in Lubumbashi. History Tout Puissant Mazembe, the first sports club from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a ...

, saying the top 20 clubs in Africa should be chosen and made to participate in an African league. Infantino said this league would generate revenues of $100 million, making it among the top ten leagues in the world, and revealed that he was launching an appeal to raise $1 billion in order to give every African country a football stadium that complies with the specifications of

. On 17 July 2021, the President of

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Patrice Motsepe Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe (born 28 January 1962) is a South African billionaire businessman and football administrator. Patrice Motsepe was born to Kgosi Augustine Motsepe, a chief of the Mmakau branch of the Tswana people. Since March 2021, ...

, confirmed the move to implement the African Super League project as a new tournament ran under the umbrella of CAF, with large financial returns for the sides taking part. The Confederation of African Football launched the competition on 10 August 2022 in

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, where more information about the competition was released. CAF initially wanted to start the competition in August 2023, with reports suggest that 24 clubs would feature in three groups of eight teams, ahead of a knockout stage starting at the Round of 16. These teams would have been taken from the best-ranked African clubs over the past few years, with groups played on a regional basis (North, Central/West, South/East). As part of the club licensing criteria, participating clubs would be required to have a youth academy and a women's team. On 9 June, the president of CAF,

, announced the decision to change the name of the African Super League to the African Football League during an interview with

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. saying "Our friends in Europe advised us not to use the expression

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

due to the negative associations with the recent failed attempt in European football." On 13 June 2023, during that year's CAF General Assembly in

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, Infantino announced that the competition would be scaled back to 8 teams for the inaugural edition and would now kick off on 20 October 2023, which would be followed by an expanded tournament further down the line. The African Football League would also not replace CAF's top club competition, the

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club (association football), club football competition organized by the Conf ...

. On 29 August 2023, the competition format for the inaugural edition was announced, with the previous format announced to be adopted starting in 2024–25 (later canceled). On 20 October 2023, the president of CAF,

, unveiled the African football league trophy. With the introduction of the African Football League in the 2023–24 season, CAF attempted to establish a new competition to rival the

; However, the African Football League failed to generate the same level of popular enthusiasm and only lasted for a single edition. The CAF Champions League remains Africa's premier club competition, boasting the highest prize money on the continent. The competition did not return in the 2024–25 season and, though CAF has never officially announced the competition is defunct, information about the AFL is no longer featured on the official CAF website as of April 2025.

Format

The initial details of the format were announced during the launch ceremony in 2022 and would have involved 24 teams and 197 matches. However, the

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edition was contested as an eight-team knockout competition, with two-legged quarter-final, semi-final and final rounds.

Money distribution

The prize money for the first season has been announced in September 2023 and was as follows: * $4,000,000 for the winner * $3,000,000 for the runner-up * $1,700,000 for each of the semi-finalists * $1,000,000 for each of the quarter-finalists

Media coverage

Broadcasters

Results

Controversies

The project has been subjected to criticism for unrealistic expectations of financial returns. The current continental championships in Africa experience weak infrastructure and high travel costs for fans and teams, which will not be automatically resolved by this new competition. There were already significant financial disputes between the major teams in North Africa, South Africa and the rest of the continent, which would be exacerbated by the new competition. Further, it was also doubtful whether the competition can arouse the public's attention, despite claims to the contrary, while there were concerns about the impact of the new competition on the current

Championships such as the

(which prize money of the winners was the at the same level as the African Football League winners), the

CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football football team, club competition established in 2004 and organized by Confederation of African Football, CAF ...

and national leagues. In this regard, the Confederation of African Football has also been described as a laboratory of experiments, with the acceptance of the proposal to establish the African Super League contrasting with the rejection of the

European Super League The Unify League (UL), previously known as the European Super League (ESL), was a proposed seasonal football competition for clubs in Europe. It was supposed to be organised by the European Super League Company, S.L., a commercial enterprise ...

by UEFA in April 2021.

References

{{International club football

Super Cup A super cup is a competition, in association football, basketball, handball, volleyball and rugby union which often forms the 'curtain raiser' to a season, and typically involves only two teams who have qualified through success in other competi ...

Sports leagues established in 2023