There are indications that next year’s African Cup of Nations could be postponed until 2028 following doubts over the readiness of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to host the tournament.
Reports say CAF’s executive committee will discuss the proposal when it meets in Dar es Salaam on Friday. Morocco’s expected withdrawal as hosts for next month’s Women’s AFCON is also high on CAF’s agenda.
CAF president, Patrice Motsepe announced in December that starting from 2028, AFCON would be staged every four years as opposed to two years.
Despite rumoured interest from South Africa and Botswana in jointly hosting that 2028 tournament, there is growing expectation that the 2027 edition will be pushed back 12 months.
According to several sources in the ExCo, there are major concerns over the infrastructure in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and their ability to cope with a 24-team tournament due to be spread over 10 cities. Last August there were challenges including ticketing and security measures around the stadiums in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda that hosted the Africa Nations Championships (Chan) for domestic-based players. There are also understood to be issues with finding time in the international calendar to complete the qualification given the potential involvement of 10 African teams at this year’s World Cup.
Any postponement would mean scrapping the tournament scheduled for 2028, for which Ethiopia had signalled its intention to rival a South Africa-Botswana bid. That would allow CAF to introduce its plan for a first African Nations League to take place in 2029. It wants to replace the biennial AFCON and CHAN as its chief source of income.
Last month Motsepe insisted that the 2027 tournament would go ahead.
“I have a duty to develop football all over Africa,” he said. “I can’t have competitions only in those four countries where you’ve got the infrastructure. You’ve got to create opportunities for the other countries to build infrastructure as well. I’m confident that the Afcon in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda will be enormously successful.”
There is confusion over the Women’s Afcon due to start on 17 March after South Africa said it was ready to step in if required after Morocco apparently indicated it could no longer stage the tournament. Neither the Moroccan football federation nor Caf has confirmed that the tournament will be moved, with a decision expected at Friday’s ExCo meeting.
