CAF considers return to 2-year AFCON cycle

October 12, 2026

1 minute read

THE Confederation of African Football (CAF) president, Patrice Motsepe, has said that the organisation is considering moving the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) back to a biennial cycle, having only announced plans to scrap it in December.

Speaking at a CAF strategy conference in Cape Verde, Motsepe did not fully commit to backtracking on plans to switch to a four-year cycle from 2028, but made it clear that it was exploring a return to the traditional calendar.

“We’ve discussed it over the last few days. We are looking at everything, including having the AFCON coming back every two years. We are very clear,” Motsepe said on Friday.

“There were all sorts of discussions and all sorts of promises that, at the time we looked at it, looked very interesting.”

CAF had initially announced plans for an African Nations League to fill gaps in a stretched AFCON calendar.

However, the CAF president has now hinted that the confederation is considering backtracking on an initial decision which appeared to have FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s support.

Infantino had urged CAF to hold the AFCON every four years, rather than every two, in early 2020. In December 2025, Motsepe announced plans to do exactly that.

Those plans are now up in the air. AFCON 2027 is scheduled to take place in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with the bidding process underway for the following year’s tournament.

Motsepe reaffirmed his confidence in the readiness for next year’s tournament, acknowledging problems in the preparations of venues but saying they would be addressed.

After claiming that each AFCON he had presided over had been the most successful in the tournament’s history, always eclipsing the last, he reminded the audience of doubts ahead of the 2021 tournament — the first of his reign as president — which was held belatedly in 2022 in Cameroon.

“When I became president, the first thing they said to me was: ‘Cancel Cameroon. They are not ready; the stadiums are not ready.’ I said: ‘I don’t come from that culture. I come from a culture of believing in Africa. -ESPN

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