Convinced that there was "a good" African Cup of Nations (CAN2023) in Côte d'Ivoire, between January 13th and February 11th, with "very safe stadiums", filled by more than 1.1 million people in the 52 games, and "many viewers on television" – almost two billion – the official praised the "good organization" on the part of the African Football Confederation (CAF).
"When federations reach the level of organization they have now, the potential is enormous. African football owes nothing to South American football, nor to Asian football. We will have for the first time 9.5 teams [nine or 10] in final phase of the World Championship, with double the chances of surprising", he told Lusa, envisaging the expansion from 32 to 48 teams in the 2026 World Cup.
Also aware of the "technical and tactical potential" of footballers from the African continent, the 37-year-old former Swiss international recalled that the teams were "very close to each other" in the most recent CAN, with "many surprises", namely the unprecedented qualifications for the round of 16 of Namibia, which would be eliminated by Angola, and Mauritania, eliminated at that stage by Cape Verde, the country where Gelson Fernandes was born.
The FIFA official praised the performance of the two teams, both with a path to the quarter-finals, as well as Mozambique, fourth and last placed, with two points in Group B, a "very difficult group" won by Cape Verde. The other Portuguese-speaking country, Guinea-Bissau, was placed fourth in Group A, without any points.
The former footballer from Sporting, in the 2012/13 season, but also from clubs such as the English teams Manchester City and Leicester, the French teams Saint-Étienne and Rennes and the German teams Eintracht Frankfurt, also believes that the Forward program, developed by FIFA worldwide since 2016, is helping football in African countries to evolve.
Between 2016 and 2022, the initiative gathered financing of 2.4 billion dollars worldwide, with CAF having funds of almost 718 million dollars, the highest amount among the six continental confederations.
Of this available funding, CAF saw US$604 million approved and 385 projects made viable, having invested the majority of the money in infrastructure (US$119.3 million), administrative issues (US$118.4 million) and the organization of national teams ( 106.9 million), according to the report made available by FIFA.
"Forward is an excellent job, with this development program that is paying off now, because each federation is more professional in preparing the games (...). "Our work is always planning, organizing, investing in infrastructure and competitions. This is the way”, emphasizes the person responsible.
Used to traveling around the continent, to visit infrastructure or player training projects, Gelson Fernandes wants to see "strong federations, with many well-defined objectives and programs" and believes that the pilot phase of the so-called FIFA Series, responsible for bringing together teams that are little accustomed to playing against each other, between the 18th and 26th of March, will enrich the federations' CVs.
"It is important to give different experiences to our federations, so that they are more complete", he says, regarding an initiative with private games distributed among five groups of four teams each, including Cape Verde.
