Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe has announced a significant change to the scheduling of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Africa’s premier continental football tournament.
Following the 2027 edition, which will be jointly hosted by Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, the competition will proceed with one additional biennial tournament in 2028 before transitioning to a quadrennial cycle.
This means subsequent editions will occur in 2032, 2036, and beyond, aligning the AFCON with major global tournaments like the European Championships in terms of frequency.
The decision was revealed after a CAF executive committee meeting in Morocco, ahead of the ongoing 2025 AFCON finals being hosted there.
Motsepe indicated that the shift was discussed in collaboration with FIFA President Gianni Infantino and aims to introduce a new annual African Nations League starting in 2029 to maintain regular high-level competition for national teams.
Details on the 2028 host nation remain undecided, while the exact dates for the 2027 finals in East Africa are still to be confirmed. This restructuring marks the end of the tournament’s long-standing biennial format, which has been in place since 1968 with only minor interruptions.