African football’s governing structures gather this week in Cabo Verde for a strategy conference that will test how the continent’s football leadership converts recent World Cup success into long-term institutional planning. The CAF Strategy Conference, running from October 7-9 in Santa Maria on Sal Island, brings together the presidents of all 54 CAF Member Associations, including the leaders of COSAFA’s Member Associations, under the convenership of CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe.
The three-day programme is built around decision-making rather than ceremony. Thursday features the CAF Member Associations’ Strategy Meeting, where the region’s football leadership will sit alongside counterparts from across the continent to set the future direction of the African game. The stated agenda centres on strengthening Member Associations, improving football administration and building sustainable structures capable of supporting success both on and off the pitch.
The attendance list underscores the scale of the exercise. Alongside the 54 Member Association presidents and Zonal Union Presidents, the conference draws CAF Executive Committee members, National Team coaches, technical leaders and international football experts. FIFA President Gianni Infantino is also attending, placing the world governing body directly in the room as African football’s leadership charts its next phase.
The timing is deliberate. The conference follows the continent’s strongest collective showing at the FIFA World Cup 2026 in the United States, Mexico and Canada. A record 10 African nations competed at the expanded 48-team tournament. Nine advanced from the group stage to the Round of 32, the highest percentage of African representatives to reach the knockout stages in World Cup history.
COSAFA’s presence at that tournament came through South Africa, which reached the knockout stages of a World Cup for the first time. Bafana Bafana opened their Group A campaign with a 2-0 loss to co-hosts Mexico, recovered to draw 1-1 with Czechia, then defeated South Korea 1-0 in their final pool match to secure a place in the Round of 32. Their run ended there with a narrow 1-0 defeat to Canada, decided by a stoppage-time goal, but the campaign marked a significant milestone for the Southern African region on the global stage.
Those performances now form a central part of the conference agenda. CAF is seeking to identify the technical, coaching and development lessons from the World Cup campaign that can be carried forward towards the FIFA World Cup 2030. Friday’s programme includes a detailed technical review of the tournament involving leading coaches and football experts, with wider discussions covering player pathways, youth development, coaching, administration and the structures required to make African football increasingly competitive and sustainable.
For COSAFA’s Member Associations, the gathering offers a formal channel to contribute to the continental strategy and to share ideas on the continued development of football in the Southern African region. The conference follows Wednesday’s CAF Technical and Development Committee programme, and the three days are designed to turn the lessons of Africa’s recent progress into concrete plans for the next phase of growth across all 54 Member Associations.
The accountability question running through the week is straightforward: whether the continent’s football administrations can match their teams’ on-field performance with administrative capacity, sustainable structures and coherent planning. The conference’s stated focus on strengthening Member Associations and improving administration places that responsibility squarely with the office-holders in attendance, from the CAF presidency down to the regional associations charged with delivering the strategy at home.