With 2023 firmly underway, ESPN's Ed Dove looks ahead to the coming 12 months and reveals his big wishes for African football this year.
Morocco to build on their World Cup success
Only one of last year's big wishes for African men's football in 2022 came true: that one of the continent's FIFA World Cup representatives would reach the semifinals.
At the time, we didn't know which teams would reach Qatar from the CAF qualifying program, although we tipped Algeria, Senegal and Nigeria among the hot contenders to break new ground at the global showpiece.
The Fennecs and the Super Eagles failed to reach the tournament, but Morocco did realise ESPN's winter wish by advancing to the Final Four -- the first African team to go so deep in the tournament.
Our first wish for 2023 is that the Atlas Lions can build on that remarkable performance to ensure their campaign in Qatar is not an isolated success but rather the beginning of a marvellous cycle.
It's entirely feasible, with star men like Achraf Hakimi, Sofyan Amrabat, Nayef Aguerd and Azzedine Ounahi all in their early-to-mid 20s, and the country's footballing infrastructure putting it head and shoulders above the rest of the continent.
Certainly, Walid Regragui's work with this Morocco team -- despite taking the reins only in August -- will likely have alerted European sides and bigger national selections to his quality, but, if he remains, the Lions have the stability and momentum to translate their World Cup heroics to continental dominance.
Perhaps more pertinently, Morocco's success should hopefully inspire other African teams and provide a blueprint for how to harness talent.
The North Africans, led by FA President Fouzi Lekjaa, have invested in the Mohammed VI Academy, in footballing infrastructure, the logistics around the national team, and the competitive domestic league to help Morocco punch above their weight.
Other African nations must now follow their example.
A viable African World Cup hosting bid
The 2030 World Cup host will be decided in 2024, but we should have a clear idea by the end of '23 about the various bidding parties and the merits of each possible destination.
Since 2018, various African countries have outlined their desire to compete for the centenary edition of the tournament.
Morocco has proposed both a joint North African bid or a combined effort with Spain and Portugal, while Egypt -- not included in the Maghreb proposal -- has also been mooted as a potential host.
A possible Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Greece bid has been discussed, which would represent the first time the tournament has been hosted in multiple continents, while there were also murmurings of a joint-Central African bid involving the likes of Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Gabon.
These are early days, of course, but it would be encouraging to see, by the end of 2023, a viable and thorough African hosting proposal that could offer genuine hope of bringing the tournament back to the continent for the first time since 2010.
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African Super League transparency
The African Super League, the brainchild of Dr Patrice Motsepe and Gianni Infantino, is set to launch in 2023 with the ambition of revolutionising African club football and enriching the continent's football structures.
For Infantino, of course, there's the added incentive of creating a FIFA-backed Super League tournament that could potentially be rolled out across other continents and stave off any future breakaway proposal, as was witnessed - and quashed - in Europe last year.
There's doubtless immense potential in African club football, and there's cautious enthusiasm on the continent about the prospect of a new, lucrative, pan-continental league.
However, there's been a lack of transparency from CAF about where the financial support for the project will come from, not to mention exactly how a single league will fairly represent and remunerate a confederation with 54 member federations.
We won't be able to truly evaluate the success or failure of the Super League initiative in 2023 -- the tournament is due to kick-off in August -- but it is important that CAF offers some explanation as to how the competition will be funded and how the anticipated immense financial returns will be generated.
WAFCON opens the door
While the long-term legacy of the Super League remains to be seen, Motsepe's regime certainly can take some credit for the progress made in the women's game since he replaced Ahmad Ahmad at the helm of CAF in March 2021.
The second edition of the CAF Women's Champions League was hosted across a fortnight in early November, with Morocco's AS FAR defeating holders Mamelodi Sundowns in the final to claim an unprecedented CAF purse of $US400,000.
The Women's Africa Cup of Nations also provided a thrilling exhibition for the women's game in the continent, with the organisation and atmosphere in Morocco -- the only country in the world with two tiers of professional women's football -- matched by some memorable contests.
There was also a changing of the guard, with a maiden victory for South Africa's Banyana Banyana as Nigeria's Super Falcons were finally deposed.
CAF is putting its money where its mouth is as far as the women's game is concerned, with Motsepe's desire to promote the sport matched by sizeable financial support.
What else can be achieved in the women's game in 2023?
Nigeria's exciting generation isn't frittered away
One of ESPN's wishes for 2022 that emphatically failed to come true was that Nigeria would enjoy success.
Instead, it was a disaster.
Early promise at the Africa Cup of Nations was halted by Tunisia before the Super Eagles were undone by Ghana in a two-legged World Cup playoff and missed out on Qatar.
This all happened against a backdrop of managerial uncertainty -- the bungled appointment of Jose Peseiro and the messy retention of Augustine Eguavoen -- while Amaju Pinnick was eventually ousted from the Glass House after a challenging final year in charge.
All the while, Nigeria actually boast an impressive generation of talent, with -- in particular -- an array of attacking quality that few in the continent can match.
Peseiro's recent record in charge isn't encouraging, and reports that he hasn't been paid for more six months even less so, but here's hoping, wishing and praying that 2023 can be the year that Nigerian football finally gets its house in order to make the most of its outrageous potential.
Don't hold your breath.
Another Ballon d'Or challenge
Sadio Mane went close last year to becoming Africa's first Ballon d'Or champion since George Weah became the continent's only winner in 1995.
Mane, on the back of cup triumphs with Senegal and Liverpool, finished second in the ranking, behind Karim Benzema.
Will another African player be a genuine contender for the grandest individual prize in the sport again in 2023?
The likes of Mane and Mohamed Salah may have another challenge in them, while Victor Osimhen -- imperious during Napoli's undefeated start to the season -- has already equalled the Serie A goalscoring record of Weah during his storied time at AC Milan.
Could the Nigeria striker, potentially with a Scudetto under his arm, emerge as Africa's next great Ballon d'Or contender?
Stade d'Olembe tragedy must leave tangible legacy
Eight people died and 38 were injured in the crush at Yaounde's Stade d'Olembe ahead of Cameroon's Africa Cup of Nations Round-of-16 meeting with Comoros in January.
Motsepe vowed after the incident that such tragedies would never again be repeated on his watch, but what has CAF done to ensure that Olembe is the last in a long list of such disasters on the continent?
After a brief suspension, Olembe was duly reinstated during the Nations Cup, while CAF never truly provided clarity on the circumstances that led to lives being lost... let alone outlining how such a scenario will be avoided in the future.
As Algeria prepares to host the African Nations Championship this month, and with high-profile qualifiers and club matches to come throughout the year, can CAF truly say that lessons have been learned?
The organising body surely needs to publish an official report on the Olembe tragedy, and follow it up with action points -- a toolkit -- for African federations and event organising committees to implement in order to ensure the highest standards are met and such disasters are avoided.