Confederation of African Football confirms AFCON return to two-year cycle

OCTOBER CITY (EGYPT) — The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) will take place every two years, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced, reversing an earlier decision of moving the competition to a four-year cycle. 

"The Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) Executive Committee unanimously decided that the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (“AFCON”) will return to taking place every two years," CAF said in a statement.

CAF president Patrice Motsepe announced at the CAF Strategy Conference in Cabo Verde, held from October 7 to 9, that the CAF executive committee would reassess and reconsider last year's decision to hold the AFCON every four years.

"The decision by the CAF EXCO that the CAF AFCON should take place every two years was based on advancing, protecting and promoting the interest of African Football and CAF’s 54 member associations, as well as the interest of African players employed by football clubs outside Africa," Motsepe said.

The next CAF AFCON will be held in 2027 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It will be the first edition jointly hosted by three nations and the tournament's first return to East Africa since Ethiopia hosted it in 1976.

The 2027 AFCON will be a much larger tournament, with 24 national teams vying for the continental title. It is set to kick off on June 19, with the final scheduled for July 17.

Kenya will officially inaugurate the 60,000-seat Raila Odinga International Stadium in Nairobi on January 5, 2027. German giants Bayern Munich and Dutch club Ajax are set to play a high-profile friendly ahead of AFCON 2027.

The subsequent AFCONs will take place in 2028, 2031 and 2033.

The forthcoming FIFA World Cup will take place in 2030, and CAF said, "In accordance with the FIFA tradition, the AFCON and other Confederations National Teams competitions may not take place during the year of the FIFA World Cup."