CAF restores AFCON to every two years
CAF's executive committee unanimously restored the Africa Cup of Nations to a two-year cycle on Thursday 29 October 2026, reversing last year's plan to stage the finals every four years, the confederation said.
By Emily · · Updated
The decision was announced after CAF president Patrice Motsepe had told the CAF Strategy Conference in Cabo Verde earlier in October that the executive committee would reassess the four-year calendar approved last December, according to a CAF statement. Motsepe said the change was made to protect African football, the 54 member associations and African players employed by clubs outside Africa.
What CAF decided
CAF confirmed that the next TotalEnergies AFCON will be co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in 2027. Subsequent finals are scheduled for 2028, 2031 and 2033. There will be no AFCON in 2030 because that year hosts the FIFA World Cup, and CAF said confederations' senior national-team finals should not clash with a World Cup year. Reuters, as carried by Al Jazeera, reported that the December plan to move AFCON onto a four-year cycle had not been widely welcomed.
Under that plan, a new Africa Nations League was meant to become the continent's biennial flagship. Motsepe said the Nations League would need several years before it could deliver the financial and development contribution required for African football to stay competitive and self-supporting, so the executive committee returned AFCON itself to the two-year rhythm.
The Guardian's football live blog on Friday also led with the U-turn, noting that AFCON will be held every two years again after CAF reversed the quadrennial plan. That independent UK write-up matches the calendar CAF published: 2027 in East Africa, then 2028, a blank 2030, then 2031 and 2033.
Why Motsepe reopened the file
In the CAF release Motsepe framed AFCON as more than a calendar slot: the finals celebrate African football and the continent's cultures and bring together the 54 associations and the diaspora. He said the executive committee acted in the best interest of those associations and of African players based abroad.
TuSport desk view
We mapped the restored calendar for Nigerian readers. The 2027 finals stay with Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda as co-hosts, then another edition follows in 2028 before the World Cup year 2030 is left clear. That denser finals rhythm is the practical change from the shelved four-year vote: associations and clubs that release African players get another AFCON window in 2028 instead of a longer wait. For Nigeria it keeps the road to a 2027 finals visible while the NFF's own governance track continues — see our reports covering Sunday Oliseh's Super Eagles comments and the FIFA–CAF screening for the NFF normalisation committee.
The desk also notes what CAF left unchanged. Club competitions such as the CAF Champions League stay on their own track — our Champions League group-stage draw note remains the reference for this season's African clubs — and Motsepe's Nations League idea is delayed, not cancelled. The stated blocker is revenue and development capacity over several years, not a one-line preference for nostalgia.
For Nigerian readers abroad and at home, the Motsepe line on players employed outside Africa is the one that lands. A two-year AFCON keeps national-team windows recognisable to Premier League, Ligue 1 and Süper Lig employers while the Nations League is still years from replacing that product. The reversal does not invent new money; it keeps the finals clubs and fans already recognise until the Nations League can.
One gap in the new calendar is who hosts 2028. CAF invited its member associations in July to bid for the 2028, 2032 and 2036 finals, according to its bidding notice, which also fixed the East African finals for 19 June to 17 July 2027. No 2028 host has been named, and ESPN reported that CAF did not specify what would happen to the existing bids for 2032 and 2036 now that 2031 and 2033 are on the list. For the Super Eagles, that means planning for finals in consecutive years, with the second venue still unknown.
Why it matters
AFCON is the main senior finals African associations plan around. Restoring the two-year cycle locks 2027 and 2028 dates for coaches, broadcasters and clubs that release players, and it ends months of uncertainty after the December four-year vote. Nigeria's path to the East African 2027 finals is clearer than it was under the shelved plan. Follow Super Eagles coverage via Oliseh's assessment and the NFF normalisation track.
Sources: CAF — CAF decides to return to the AFCON taking place every two years · Al Jazeera — AFCON returns to 2-year cycle after CAF reverses quadrennial decision · The Guardian — Afcon to be held every two years, Premier League news and WCL reaction – football live · ESPN — CAF reverses four-year AFCON plan, restores two-year cycle · CAF — CAF invites its Member Associations (“MAs”) to submit bids to host the CAF AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS (“AFCON”) 2028, 2032 and 2036
