AFCON TO HOLD EVERY FOUR YEARS AFTER 2028 — CAF
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By: Sefiu Ajape
The Africa Cup of Nations will be held every four years after an edition scheduled for 2028, marking a major shift from its current biennial format, African football chief Patrice Motsepe announced on Saturday.
The Confederation of African Football president said the change forms part of a broad restructuring of the continental football calendar aimed at better alignment with an increasingly congested global schedule.
While a biennial AFCON had long served as a key revenue stream for African national associations, Motsepe explained that the introduction of an annual African Nations League — modelled after the UEFA Nations League — would now help generate income.
“Our focus now is on this AFCON, but in 2027 we will be going to Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and the AFCON after that will be in 2028,” Motsepe told reporters in Rabat on Saturday, on the eve of the opening match of this year’s Morocco-hosted tournament.
He added that CAF would open a bidding process for countries interested in hosting the 2028 Cup of Nations.
“Then, after the FIFA Club World Cup in 2029, we will have the first African Nations League… with more prize money, more resources, more competition.
“As part of this arrangement, the AFCON will now take place once every four years.”
Since its inaugural edition in 1957, the Cup of Nations has largely been staged every two years, though over the past 15 years it has faced growing challenges in fitting into the international football calendar.
This year’s tournament in Morocco will be the eighth edition since the 2012 competition jointly hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
The 2019 tournament in Egypt was played in June and July, a departure from the traditional early-year window, in a move seen as an attempt to accommodate European clubs by avoiding the middle of their domestic seasons.
However, the two most recent editions — Cameroon 2022 and Ivory Coast 2024 — returned to the January–February slot to avoid the rainy season.
The latest Cup of Nations was originally slated for June and July this year but was rescheduled due to the inaugural edition of FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup in the United States.
CAF was unable to push the tournament to next June because of the 2026 World Cup, while the revamped UEFA Champions League format has also ruled out a January–February window.
As a result, the tournament will now begin in December and run into the New Year, a period when some European leagues pause, though England’s Premier League remains busy.
Motsepe said the adjustments, alongside the launch of the Nations League, were designed “to make sure the football calendar worldwide is more in harmony.”
“Of course, our primary duty is to African football, but we also have a duty to the players from Africa playing for the best clubs in Europe,” he said.
“We want to make sure that there is more synchronisation and that the global calendar allows the best African players every year to be in Africa.”
He explained that the annual Nations League would initially be regionalised, featuring 16 teams each from the east, west and central-southern zones, and six teams from the northern zone.
Fixtures will be played in September and October, with the top teams from each zone advancing to a finals tournament at a single venue in November.
Motsepe also disclosed that prize money for the Morocco Cup of Nations would be increased, with the winners set to receive $10 million, up from $7 million awarded to champions of the 2024 Ivory Coast edition.
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