AFCON 2027: Why FKF Boss Wants East Africa to Splash the Cash

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Hussein Mohammed feels Kenya and East Africa as a whole should be looking to splash more money on hosting the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations and not cut the budget.

The Sports Ministry has already raised an alarm over a near Ksh15 billion deficit related to AFCON 2027 preparations with work behind schedule on upgrades of key infrastructure needed like stadiums and training facilities due to an unavailability of funds.

Further, Kenya is yet to pay a Ksh3.5 billion hosting fee to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) while a move by the Sports Ministry to increase it to Ksh5 billion was rejected by Parliament last month, saying there was no justification for extra money given the fact that the tournament is being staged by three countries; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

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However, Mohammed feels those pushing for budget cuts are ill-advised as the three countries actually need much more if they have to match the standards set by AFCON 2025 hosts Morocco.

“AFCON in Morocco 2025, it is estimated that they invested $2.5 billion in preparation for AFCON, including infrastructure development and organising the games. This is exclusive of what was paid to CAF as hosting fee,” Mohammed said on Citizen TV.

“That is about Ksh300 billion so if you use that basis and split into three countries, it is Ksh100 billion each, which is a lot of money but look at the gains that it comes with.

“The figures you are hearing is about Ksh10 billion-Ksh15 billion in total yet you are looking at an investment that should be around Ksh100 billion in terms of what AFCON represents.”

The FKF boss says AFCON is now a global tournament whose benefits far outweigh the investments put in and East Africa will reap big if it puts in more money but could lose out also if it looks to cut budgets and end up staging a poor tournament.

“AFCON in 2025, attracted over 1.5 billion viewers globally, 24 million of them were from Brazil, a new market. In the UK, it was about two to three million viewers. Digital streams at 2.5 billion streams, you can imagine the size of this tournament,” he added.

“It is not a continental event anymore. It is a global event. The implications of whether you get it right or wrong will reverberate for years. In Morocco, they hit the 20 million mark in tourism numbers and the economic impact is beneficial for many years, not to mention the legacy projects that this [tournament] leaves behind.

“So the figures you are hearing are peanuts compared to what we should put in AFCON.”