A Turning Point for African Football

AboutAFBS 2026

ABOUT AFBS 2026

The Africa Football Business Summit (AFBS) is a continental platform dedicated to shaping the future of African football through policy dialogue, investment facilitation, innovation, governance reform, and sustainable development.

Convened by the Football Foundation for Africa (FFA), AFBS brings together stakeholders from across the football ecosystem including governments, football federations, leagues, clubs, investors, technology companies, academics, development agencies, and community organisations.

AFBS 2026 takes place during a FIFA World Cup year and marks sixty years since African nations collectively boycotted the 1966 FIFA World Cup in protest against unequal representation.

This historic moment serves as the foundation for a new conversation: How can Africa move from participation in global football to ownership of sustainable football economies.

Our Approach

AFBS 5.0

AFBS is evolving from an annual conference into a year-round continental platform focused on:

Research and policy development
Investment facilitation
Regional engagement forums
Pilot projects
Strategic partnerships
Knowledge generation

AFBS is not simply an event. It is infrastructure for the future of African football.

01.

— Our Mission

To build sustainable football ecosystems by connecting policy, investment, infrastructure, governance, technology, and human capital development.

02.

— Our Vision

To position football as a strategic driver of economic growth, social development, innovation, and continental transformation across Africa.

Football as Infrastructure (FaI)

At the centre of AFBS 2026 is the Football as Infrastructure (FaI) model developed by the Football Foundation for Africa.
The FaI framework positions football as more than a sport. It views football as strategic infrastructure capable of supporting:

Education and skills development
Youth employment
Public health and wellbeing
Urban regeneration
Creative industries
Social cohesion
Community development

AFBS seeks to integrate football into broader national and continental development agendas.

Why Accra, Ghana?

Accra represents a powerful symbolic and strategic location for AFBS 2026.

Ghana occupies a unique place in African history as a pioneer of Pan-African thought and political independence under Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

It was from this political and intellectual tradition that the 1966 World Cup boycott emerged — a moment when African nations collectively asserted their place in global football.

Hosting AFBS 2026 in Accra connects the Summit to this legacy of continental leadership.

Today, Accra also hosts the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the most ambitious economic integration project in Africa’s history.

AfCFTA aims to create a single market across 55 countries, enabling the free movement of goods, services, and capital.

Football sits at the intersection of many of the sectors that AfCFTA seeks to unlock: