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Record-breaking AFCON tournament indicates a bright future
Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has been a roaring success that has symbolised the bright future of the world game in Africa. Record number of goals, booming social media channels and incredible upsets set up a future-defining campaign for all African football enthusiasts.
In a press conference before the final of the competition, Patrick Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football, claimed nearly 2 billion people watched the Africa Cup of Nations 2023 over the past month. This indicates an over 300% growth from AFCON 2021 in Cameroon which reached around 600 million viewers across 160 different nations.
This incredible reach was made possible due to many significant factors, most being extremely positive and setting a tremendous foundation due to the continent’s steep rise in football popularity across the last few years.
Record prize money and revenue earned
Before the tournament started, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced a 40% increase in the prize money for winning Afcon. The winning national team, hosts Ivory Coast, took home AUD$10.7 million while runners-up Nigeria took AUD$6.1 million, third place South Africa took AUD$3.8 million and the fourth placed D.R Congo team took home AUD$1.9 million.
AFCON this campaign had a record 17 commercial partners, and the competition is estimated to also smash the previous revenue record of AUD$93.4 million. CAF is estimated to be earning around AUD$114.6 million in sponsorship revenue from this year’s AFCON according to London-based market research firm GlobalData.
Global viewership and increased media coverage
Matches were shown in about 180 countries through deals with partner broadcasters like Sky, Canal+, beIN Sport, BBC, and MultiChoice, as well as 45 Free To Air broadcasters.
Australians were afforded the opportunity to watch every AFCON 2024 game live and in HD thanks to beIN Sports.
Media accreditation at the event was more than doubled from the last AFCON, with over 6,000 journalists applying for accreditation from all over the world. The increased coverage on social media platforms played a huge role in its international popularity.
Star attractions
There is no denying the enormous role played by star players who featured in this stacked AFCON tournament which is also proving that Africa as a continent is turning over elite talent like never before.
Huge international names like Victor Osimhen, Achraf Hakimi, Mohamed Salah and Mohammed Kudus are just four names out of many that most football fans would consider quite entertaining to watch. This erray of talent makes any football fan excited to tune into matches, even as a complete neutral.
World class facilities
Côte d’Ivoire really stepped up their game in preparation for this tournament, with planning years in advance to host a world class event.
AUD$1.53 billion was estimated to have been spent on renovating roads, stadiums, hospitals and other infrastructure in preparation for the tournament. Beyond renovating existing stadiums, the country built three new venues, two with a 20,000 capacity and the new Alassane Ouattara stadium, named after the president of the country, which seats over 60,000 spectators and was used for the Final of the tournament.
A fairytale ending for the hosts Côte d’Ivoire capped off a groundbreaking tournament that is proven to the world just how serious Africa is about its footballing development. With a host of exciting youngsters and more funding going directly into grassroots and professional football, there is only one trajectory that we can expect for the continent, and that is straight up.
FIFA’s inaugural U15 World Cup has raised fresh questions about transparency after private investors were reportedly involved in plans to finance and commercialise the tournament. According to reporting from The Athletic, FIFA President Gianni Infantino discussed a potential investment worth more than US$250 million without informing members of the FIFA Council about the external investment talks.
The proposal involved Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries. Boehly owns Chelsea in the Premier League. It reportedly targeted a global U15 tournament involving all 211 FIFA member associations. The discussions included broadcast rights and a potential hosting location near Disneyland before being scrapped. The investment discussions add another layer to FIFA’s growing push to bring private capital into football.
Council oversight questioned
The biggest issue is not simply the size of the proposed investment. It’s that this was planned in late 2025 without the FIFA Council being included. Several FIFA Council members reportedly said they were unaware that external investors were being approached. They learned about the discussions after the reporting emerged.
FIFA has disputed the suggestion that the process breached its governance rules. The organisation said its administration was developing funding options for the tournament and that the Council would consider formal proposals when required. However, the distinction matters. A tournament involving children, FIFA’s global brand and long-term commercial rights creates significant governance responsibilities.
A new commercial model
The proposal also shows how FIFA could use new competitions to create commercial properties. The reported investment model explored revenue from broadcasting, sponsorship and licensing. The intention to use a youth sporting tournament for external commercial benefit and to create value with all 211 nations represented adds another layer to FIFA’s questionable actions.
The proposal was reportedly dismissed just before this year’s FIFA World Cup. This could have been due to FIFA’s extensive proposal to introduce the FIFA Forward Enterprises (FIFA), which received major backlash as the governing body attempted to sell stakes in its major tournaments. The agreement with Eldridge Industries could’ve been a conflict with those existing FFE plans.
A different direction
For FIFA, they ultimately went against the proposal ideas. The U15 World Cup will be held in October in Azerbaijan from October 22nd to 31st. But once again, transparency and FIFA become an issue. The lack of consultation around specifically a youth tournament with the wider footballing community raises questions if FIFA is developing the game only for financial gain.
The U15 project may eventually create a valuable global football property. But the way FIFA handles its commercialisation could determine whether that value strengthens the organisation — or creates another governance problem.
Football can't police its way to a better future. It needs to build a culture of belonging, accountability and membership that lasts beyond any one administration.
Security manages risk. Membership builds culture. Football Victoria’s greatest legacy won’t be another policy – it will be a connected football community that outlasts today’s administrators.
Every time crowd trouble makes headlines, football tends to reach for the same solutions: more police, more security, stronger sanctions and another statement condemning the behaviour.
But football membership could offer another layer of accountability by creating a stronger relationship between supporters, their clubs and the game.
The recent South Melbourne and Preston Lions fixture has once again placed supporter behaviour under the spotlight. The match finished 0-0, but the football was overshadowed by the actions of a small group of supporters. Football Victoria condemned the behaviour and launched an investigation, while Preston Lions also condemned the conduct and indicated it would cooperate with authorities.
Those responses are necessary. The overwhelming majority of supporters attend football to support their clubs and should be able to do so in a safe and welcoming environment.
But incidents such as this should force a bigger conversation. Instead of continually asking how we punish those responsible, perhaps we should be asking how we build a football environment where accountability is embedded into the relationship between the supporter, the club and the game.
England confronted this challenge more than three decades ago.
Following the dark era of football hooliganism throughout the 1970s and 1980s, English football underwent a fundamental transformation. All-seater stadiums, CCTV, intelligence-led policing, professional stewarding and Football Banning Orders all played important roles in changing the match day environment.
But one principle sits underneath many of those reforms: knowing who your supporters are.
Football became less anonymous, and accountability became more achievable.
Football Membership Makes Accountability Possible
A membership card alone will never eradicate hooliganism. England did not solve football violence simply by introducing membership; it built an integrated system of policing, stadium management, intelligence, sanctions and supporter engagement.
Football membership can, however, strengthen that system.
When someone becomes a member, they are no longer simply an anonymous person purchasing a ticket. They have a relationship with the club. In Australia, that relationship can be even stronger because club memberships commonly provide prepaid match admission and voting rights.
That creates both privileges and responsibilities.
If a member repeatedly breaches a club’s code of conduct, there should be meaningful consequences beyond being removed from one match. Membership can be suspended, voting rights revoked and access to tickets, digital services and other member benefits restricted where appropriate.
The objective isn’t to punish supporters collectively. It is to give clubs and governing bodies the tools to identify, manage and sanction individuals while protecting the overwhelming majority who simply want to support their team.
Membership doesn’t replace policing. It strengthens accountability.
Australian Football Already Has the Foundation
Australian football does not need to start from scratch.
Our existing club membership structures already provide a direct relationship between supporter and club. Members can have voting rights, prepaid gate admission and a formal stake in the organisation they support.
The problem is that the relationship often ends at the turnstile.
Football Victoria has an opportunity to take that existing foundation and build something much bigger: a connected football membership ecosystem across Victorian football.
Imagine every supporter receiving a Football Victoria Membership ID linked to their club membership, ticket purchases, attendance, volunteer history, coaching and referee accreditation, junior participation and other interactions with the game.
That identity could become the gateway to the entire football experience.
Visual reference: Manchester United digital membership platform. What could a connected Victorian football membership experience look like?
One Membership. One Platform. One Football Community.
A centrally managed digital platform could provide members with access to live-streamed matches, club news, fixtures, results, exclusive content, merchandise, hospitality, voting, community programs and other services.
For clubs, it would create a direct and trusted relationship with their supporters.
For Football Victoria, it would create a statewide football network. For supporters, football membership becomes more than an annual transaction; it becomes their digital identity within the game.
This is where the proposal moves beyond supporter behaviour and into commercial sustainability.
Football Membership Is a Commercial Asset
The biggest misconception in Australian football is that membership is simply a marketing product.
It is not.
Football membership can become one of the game’s greatest commercial assets.
Every club talks about attracting sponsors, but sponsors increasingly want more than a logo on a shirt or perimeter board. They want access to audiences, measurable engagement and data.
A club with a strong membership base can demonstrate a genuine, identifiable community. It can communicate directly with supporters, promote merchandise and hospitality, measure engagement and provide sponsors with a more compelling proposition.
Now scale that across Victorian football.
Club websites, live streams, fixture pages, newsletters, digital memberships and content platforms collectively become a significant commercial inventory.
Football Victoria could develop statewide commercial partnerships across that network while allowing clubs to maintain their existing local relationships.
Every live stream, digital banner, fixture page, newsletter and member portal becomes valuable commercial inventory.
Revenue generated through that central digital ecosystem should be transparently redistributed across the game.
Football Victoria generates new commercial income. Participating clubs receive a share based on an agreed model that could consider active memberships, digital engagement, live-stream audiences and commercial performance.
That changes the economics.
Clubs are no longer operating entirely as individual commercial islands. They become part of a larger football marketplace where growth in membership and engagement creates value for the entire game.
Building Football’s Digital Infrastructure
The opportunity isn’t simply another membership database.
It is football infrastructure.
Imagine a single platform connecting club memberships, voting rights, match admission, live streaming, club news, supporter communications, merchandise and participation across the state.
It could also give Football Victoria a much clearer picture of the football community.
Not just registered players, but members, supporters, volunteers, coaches, referees and families actively engaged with clubs.
That data matters.
When football is competing for facilities, funding and political attention, credible evidence of community demand is far more powerful than assumptions or isolated attendance figures.
A connected football membership system could give policymakers a clearer understanding of the people behind the game and the scale of the community being served.
The South Melbourne–Preston Fixture Should Be a Catalyst
The recent fixture should not simply become another disciplinary matter that disappears once sanctions are handed down.
It should prompt a broader examination of whether Victorian football has the systems required to create stronger supporter accountability.
There is a legitimate place for security, policing, stewarding and sanctions. But these should sit within a broader framework that connects clubs with their members and gives supporters a genuine stake in the culture they help create.
The goal should not be to turn football into a sterile environment. Passion is one of the game’s greatest assets.
The goal is to protect passionate support while making it increasingly difficult for a small minority to hijack the experience for everyone else.
Football membership can be part of that solution.
A Legacy Beyond Today’s Administrators
Football administrators often ask themselves how they will be remembered.
Will it be another strategic plan? Another governance review? Another infrastructure announcement?
Those achievements matter, but systems create legacies.
The administrators who transformed English football are not remembered simply because they installed CCTV or introduced stronger sanctions. They are remembered because they helped fundamentally change how football operated.
Football Victoria has the same opportunity.
Imagine being the administration that built Australia’s first integrated football membership ecosystem: one that strengthens supporter accountability, creates recurring commercial opportunities for clubs, provides government with credible participation data, increases sponsorship value and connects supporters with their clubs through one trusted platform.
That is a legacy.
Football doesn’t need another reactive policy after the next crowd incident. It needs infrastructure—not just concrete and steel, but digital, commercial and community infrastructure capable of supporting the game for decades.
Because the greatest asset in football isn’t the grandstand, the sponsor or even the competition.
It is the people who choose to belong.
If Victorian football has the courage to transform football membership from a ticketing product into the foundation of accountability, community and commercial growth, it can do more than respond to the next incident.
It can change the way football is experienced, governed and commercially sustained for generations.
History shows us that football doesn’t change after one incident.
It changes when leaders have the courage to build systems that make the next one less likely to happen.
