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About African Schools

The CAF African Schools Programme is a Confederation of African Football [CAF] development project that will focus on organised school football. It will create and sustain a continentally competitive school football competition that will encourage young Africans to stay in school and play football. The Programme will also include other support pillars that will increase the social impact of football and build the capacity of participating countries to manage football through training programmes.

Vision: To create a future in football for every boy and girl in Africa.

Mission: To collaborate with African schools and relevant government authorities to organise football related programs across Africa through our Member Associations.

Purpose: To exploit the opportunities within the values of football to holistically develop African boys and girls.

Pillars of the Programme:

  • The Game: African Schools Championship is an organised schools’ football competition that will be contested by schools in Africa annually.
  • Social Impact: The programme will include support projects to use football as a passion focus point to address social issues in the communities around and within the participating schools.
  • Capacity Building: The Programme seeks to work closely with the CAF member Associations in strengthening their capabilities to exercise their mandate in football governance.

The National Championships of the 2022/23 season will be held in the period between March and July 2022. Schools that have complied to the requirements will receive feedback from their country’s football association on competitions calendar. 

The winning boys’ team and girls’ team will represent their country in the Zonal Phase of the Competition. 

Zonal Qualifying Tournament

The Zonal Qualifying Tournament of the 2022/23 season will be held in the period between September and December 2022. These tournaments will be managed by the CAF Zonal administrative units. 

The winning boys’ team and girls’ team will represent their zone in the final continental phase.

Final Continental Tournament

The Final Continental Tournament of the 2022/23 season will be held in March 2023 and will showcase the best of football participation and management across the qualified African schools form each of the CAF Zones. The winning boys’ team and girls’ team will be crowned as the Champions of African Schools Football. 

Prize Money

The African Schools Championship will have a set prize money allocation for every stage of the Competition. In partnership with the Motsepe Foundation, the winning boys’ team and girls’ team from national, zonal and continental Championships will have access to funding that will go towards sustaining a development project of their choice.

The African Schools Programme will use football as a passion focus point to positively impact the communities within and around the participating schools. Each school will be rewarded for championing sustainability through environmental outreach programs and for contributing to a space of value within the school. The Programme will also nurture talent in the filed of football journalism and match officiating amongst school-going children in order to give an opportunity for all. 

The White Card

The “White Card” is a pedagogical tool that aims to recognize, stimulate, and promote all behaviours of fair play and sportsmanship, practiced by athletes, coaches, officials, public and other officials during the matches of the African Schools Championship. This card is shown by the referee.

The Young Reporter Programme

The young reporter program gives aspiring football journalists a chance to horn their skills in reporting, production, and commentary of football. Young aspirants will be identified and paired with mentors to receive training and later showcase their skills during a select number of matches of the Africa Schools Championship. 

The Young Referee Programme

The Young referee programme will identify, train and give opportunity for young aspiring match officials to interpret the laws of the game of football. The young aspirants will be given opportunities to officiate during a select number of matches of the African Schools Championship and the most successful will have additional opportunity in other CAF Youth competitions.

The African Schools Programme provides additional opportunities for Member Associations to strengthen their football management workforce through training of new officers and upskilling the levels of existing officers. The areas of focus will be coaching, referees, stadium safety and security officers, general coordinators, marketing officers and protocol managers. New trainees will progressively be included in CAF Competitions while upskilled managers will get continuous delegation duties across CAF Competitions. 

CAF will work on the recommendations as will be provided by its member associations.