Official: CAF Makes Decision on AFCON 2027

Confederation of African Football (CAF) has cleared doubts over when the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations will be held.

Following an Executive Committee Meeting held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on Friday, CAF resolved that AFCON 2027 will proceed next year as initially planned and will not be moved to 2028 as has been reported this week.

UK publication The Guardian stirred the hornet’s nest when it claimed CAF had decided to move the tournament to 2028 over concerns that Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania might not be ready to stage the tournament next year.

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This led to mixed reactions with Kenya’s AFCON 2027 Local Organising Committee chairman Nicholas Musonye among those who were open to a postponement as he fears being an election year, the political situation could be a major distraction.

However, following the meeting in Dar es Salaam, CAF president Patrice Motsepe dismissed those concerns, affirming that AFCON 2027 will be held in East Africa next year.

“The AFCON next year in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda is going to be enormously successful and I saw lots of media speculation and even the Guardian in London, that there is an allegation that I am here to tell Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda that I am taking away the AFCON because our three countries are not going to be ready,” Motsepe said after the meeting.

“That is totally unfounded. Sometimes I say certain things and the media says something opposite. I am enormously confident that we will succeed. There are always challenges, I had a big challenge in Cameroon [AFCON 2021] soon after I became president [of CAF].

“I was told Cameroon is not ready so I have to take it away and they recommended a number of countries who were ready. But we have to believe in our people that there will be challenges.”

Kenya and Tanzania have two new stadiums that are under construction to be used for the tournament while there are concerns over other things in all three countries like transport, accommodation and training grounds.

However, the CAF boss has faith that everything will be ready in time for a successful AFCON 2027 tournament in East Africa.

“There will be information in the media that this stadium, pitch or grass is not ready, hotels not enough but we will fix those challenges,” added Motsepe.

“We will have a celebration [in East Africa]. I can say as the president of the 54 football associations in Africa, I was so proud of how Tanzania played in Morocco [AFCON 2025], I was proud of how Uganda played and in my head I was so proud of how Kenya would have played.

“And we will use this tournament to find the best young players. East Africa is going to be a powerhouse of the best football on the continental as much as West Africa, North Africa and Southern Africa is a powerhouse.”

With that assurance, East Africa will now be waiting for the exact dates after CAF said AFCON 2027 will held from June-July 2027, in what will be the first time the tournament is staged in the region.