The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will assess the current state of the CAF Center of Excellence which is located around CMC vicinity in Addis Ababa. The center has been in construction for the last a decade and half without nearing to completion through numerous budget cuts and failed promises.
Former CAF president Issa Hayatou had pledged his support for finalizing the center’s construction but was ousted by the Malagasy Ahmad Ahmad in March last year. The new incumbent visited the center on August 8, 2017 and stated CAF would audit its money before investing it to create financial transparency. Those words initially were taken as a stance to scrape plans to build the center. Nonetheless, with new the development CAF is to send an Egyptian engineer to Addis Ababa for assessment of the center. The engineer is expected in Addis Ababa this Friday where he will be touring the center together with Ethiopian Football Federation officials. As per our sources the engineer will report back to CAF about the current state of the center. CAF is expected to release budget for the completion of the project.
The construction of the project has not been finalized for the last decade as the buildings are now deteriorating. A grand blueprint to build three center of excellence in the continent has been agreed during a summit which was held in South Africa. Ethiopia, Cameroon and Senegal were selected by the summit as places for the construction of the center of excellence. In 2004, the CAF Center Excellence in Addis Ababa commenced construction. Nonetheless, construction was halted due to lack of fund from the continental football governing body. Phase one of the constructions is completed but the playing field and other facilities are not yet all over.
