CAF restores two-year Afcon cycle after shelving four-year plan

The Africa Cup of Nations will return to a two-year cycle after the African Football Confederation (CAF) reversed its decision to stage the tournament every four years. CAF announced the change on Thursday, saying its executive committee had agreed to it unanimously.

The decision overturns a plan adopted last year for African football’s leading national-team tournament. CAF said the next edition will be co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in 2027, with subsequent tournaments scheduled for 2028, 2031 and 2033.

Why CAF changed course

CAF linked the reversal partly to concerns about how long its proposed replacement competition would take to become financially viable. The Africa Nations League Pan-African Competition had been intended to resemble the current Afcon and take place every two years.

CAF president Patrice Motsepe said the confederation was concerned about the years required before that new competition could make substantial financial and football-development contributions. The proposal was intended to help African football and CAF competitions become globally competitive and self-supporting, he said.

Rather than move Afcon to a four-year schedule while waiting for the new competition to develop, CAF has opted to retain a more frequent tournament. Its announcement sets out the next four Afcon years, although they will not initially fall at regular two-year intervals.

Clubs may face a familiar concern

Motsepe said the decision also took account of African players employed by clubs outside the continent. But the return to a two-year cycle could prove contentious for those clubs, which may again face losing key players more often than they would under a four-year format.

Its explanation for the U-turn focused on the time needed for that competition to deliver the financial and football-development benefits it had envisaged.

Upcoming tournaments and an unresolved title

The published schedule places the 2028 Afcon one year after the tournament in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. A three-year gap then follows before the 2031 edition, with another tournament listed for 2033.

Motsepe attributed the gap after 2028 to the 2030 Fifa World Cup. He said that, in keeping with Fifa tradition, the final tournament of Afcon and other confederation national-team competitions may not take place in a World Cup year.

Separately, the winner of the 2025 Afcon remains unresolved. The Court of Arbitration for Sport is likely to rule at the end of November on Senegal’s appeal against the decision to strip them of the title and award it to hosts Morocco.