‘We Have the Money’ - Uganda Makes It Clear What They Want Between AFCON 2027 Opener and Final

As East Africa prepares for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, one of the sticking issues is how the matches will be divided but Uganda have made it clear which of the big ones they want.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania will co-host next year’s tournament between June and July 2027 and there are two attractive matches that are being contested for among the three nations.

That is the opening match as well as the final and Uganda has already expressed its interest when it comes to the two games.

“CAF has already reached out to us to ask the Pamoja countries what their interests are both opening and closing and we have made it very clear that we are in for the opening ceremony,” Uganda's AFCON 2027 Communications and Signage Sub-Committee chairman Dr Dennis Mugimba said on NBS Sport Uganda.

“We actually already have the money set aside,” he further stated, expressing confidence that Uganda will indeed host the AFCON 2027 opening ceremony.

However, while Mugimba is excluding confidence in his country’s capacity to host the tournament opener, he is concerned that Uganda does not have service providers who meet the required standard and will therefore have to outsource for a smooth opening ceremony.

“Now, here is the thing, we need to build capacity as a country because when we look at some of the service providers that are likely to manage the opening ceremony, the shortlist we have, the preliminary one, none of them is a Ugandan company,” he further stated.

“So we just hope that with the experience of AFCON, local companies shall be building capacity to manage such events going forward. We also have the All Africa [African] Games in 2031 and we still do not want to hire a foreign company.”

Uganda appears not ready to watch as the other co-hosts hog the limelight during the opening and closing ceremonies as happened during the 2024 African Nations Championships (CHAN 2024) when Tanzania hosted the opener while Kenya staged the final.

It was assumed that the same formula may apply during AFCON 2027 but it looks like CAF have a big decision to make given two countries might express an interest the same event.