Concerns have been expressed by a Moroccan news source regarding Patrice Motsepe, the president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), regularly attending South Africa games during the 2023 Afcon.
According to an article on the website SATV.MA, Motsepe’s attendance at the games may have exerted pressure on referees to call games in favor of the Bafana Bafana team.
The head of CAF has attended every match that South Africa has played, including the match against Morocco in the round of 16.
According to the article, a lot of people who were following the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast and sports analysts noticed that Patrice Motsepe, the president of CAF, was present at most of his country’s South African national team matches. They questioned whether this was deliberate on his part.
“Despite the difference in mobility resulting from his team’s play in multiple stadiums, many of his supporters believed that his presence could exert significant pressure on the stadium’s referees and rulers, influencing their decisions and potentially taking the game outside of its sporting context after he moved to San Pedro to play Morocco and from the city of Yamoussoukro to play Cape Verde.”