August 8 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) have condemned the comments of Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis (pictured) over the signing of African players and has asked UEFA to open a disciplinary investigation against him.
Last week, De Laurentiis said that his club would no longer sign African players unless they agreed to waive their Africa Cup of Nations duties. The comments prompted fury in Africa and the continent’s confederation has now hit out at the Napoli strongman.
“By publicly declaring that players who sign for Napoli must sign a waiver denouncing participation in the Africa Cup of Nations as a condition of employment, De Laurentiis’ comments likely to fall under Article 14 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations. CAF therefore urges UEFA to initiate disciplinary investigation against him,” said CAF in a statement.
“CAF is committed to the role that football plays in Africa, Europe, North and South America, Asia and globally of bringing together and uniting people of different cultures, language groups, races, ethnic groups and religious backgrounds.
“We have no doubt that Napoli and UEFA are as committed as CAF is to these global humanitarian objectives.
“Are we to assume that the Chairman of Napoli is going to include similar restrictive conditions to players from South America, Asia and other Confederations prohibiting them from playing in their Continental competitions which are important for the development and growth of football globally?” the statement read.
De Laurentiis had said: “Enough with Africans, unless they renounce on playing the African Cup of Nations. I will not buy them anymore for that reason. We pay their salaries to send them all over the world to play for others right in the middle of the season.”
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