AFCON 2027: Government Reveals Plan to Lift Benni McCarthy’s Harambee Stars

With the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON 2027) approaching, Kenya is preparing key infrastructure to meet the deadline but also has a plan to boost the preparations of Harambee Stars.

Kenya will be co-hosting the tournament alongside Uganda and Tanzania and there is a need to ensure the home team impresses so that they can have a deep run in the competition and also encourage match attendance.

That leaves head coach Benni McCarthy with the pressure of coming up with the right team and strategy that will avoid early elimination.

However, preparations will be key and for that to happen, they will need plenty of support from the government and Football Kenya Federation.

Speaking on Wednesday after inspecting the Talanta Stadium, Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya noted that his ministry is putting together a plan that will ensure McCarthy’s team does not disappoint at home.

“We have a separate plan to prepare the team. There is no need of hosting then you lose,” Mvurya told the media.

“So, we will also have a roadmap to prepare Harambee Stars and we will be rallying all Kenyans both in the public and private sector to support our team and to profile our team before, within and also after AFCON.

“We have another plan which we will share but we have already asked the football technical team to give a roadmap on how they [Harambee Stars] can lift the cup.”

Preparing the team will need a lot of commitment in terms of resources given they will require to go in camp early and play top build-up matches.

Fellow co-hosts Uganda have already allocated the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) UGX12.5 billion (Ksh433 million) for the Uganda Cranes’ AFCON 2027 preparations, showing the scale of what Harambee Stars will need to be ready for Africa’s premier competition.