New COSAFA President Artur de Almeida e Silva has said he wants to bring Member Associations closer together to solve their problems internally, rather than have CAF or FIFA get involved.

Artur de Almeida was speaking in an exclusive interview with The COSAFA Show podcast following his election at the organisation’s General Assembly in Windhoek, Namibia on Saturday.

“We need to bring all countries of COSAFA next to each other and next to their governments to help build infrastructure and help the federations. We have to connect our members,” Artur de Almeida said.

“In our region we have so many conflicts in the federations. One idea is to have each of the seven members of the COSAFA Executive Committee assists two countries. To help them, maybe they visit the countries two of three times a year to meet the federation to know things are going and what assistance they need.

“If there are some conflicts, COSAFA can be the first one to go and fix the problem. Before CAF or FIFA. For that, we have to come next to our members.”

Also on this episode we speak to newly-elected COSAFA Vice-President Said Ali Said Athouman on his vision and how he, as his country’s federation president, has masterminded the incredible growth of the Comoros national team in recent years.