The Confederation of African Football (CAF) wants disciplinary action to be taken against Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis.
This comes after Laurentiis’ comments that his club Napoli would never sign any more African players unless they agreed to sign a waiver to not take part in the Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.
Napoli did not have Kalidou Koulibaly and Andre Zambo Anguissa available for several games earlier this year because they were playing at the Afcon for Senegal and Cameroon respectively.
“Enough with Africans, unless they renounce on playing in 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,” De Laurentiis was quoted during a streamed event on Wall Street Italia.
But in a statement released on Sunday, CAF has urged UEFA to take serious action against the 73-year-old.
“CAF is appalled by the irresponsible and unacceptable remarks made by Napoli President, Mr Aurelio De Laurentiis on African players and the Africa Cup of Nations.
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.
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 African Cup of Nations is the flagship competition of the African continent and one of the leading global football competitions. Its last edition in Cameroon was shown in more than 160 countries and attracted more than 600 million viewers,” read the statement.
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