African soccer’s CAF governing body has launched the search for host countries for three upcoming editions of its primary Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) continental competition, after scrapping plans to make it a quadrennial affair.
CAF is looking for hosts to stage the 2028, 2031, and 2033 AFCON tournaments, the next three editions, after its executive committee “unanimously decided” to revert to the two-year cycle format.
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The body has placed a deadline for countries to declare interest by November 17, with a further deadline for proper submissions of all related documents and government guarantees by December 8.
The federation announced its intention to switch AFCON to a four-year cycle last December, a move that drew condemnation from many on the continent, who opposed the move on the basis that it would reduce commercial visibility, sponsorship inventory, playing opportunity, and soccer development.
Furthermore, the executive committee decided that the alternative, a ‘nations league’ competition, would take too long to make up the shortfall in revenue from the halving of AFCON commitment.
Prior to that switch, CAF had received three bids to host the 2028 tournament. Given the short notice of the return to biennial competition, it is likely that one of these three will become the 2028 host on the basis of preparedness.
The three bidders were Morocco, which hosted the most recent tournament in 2025, which hasn’t hosted AFCON since 1976, and a joint bid from neighbors Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, only one of which (South Africa in 1996, 2013) has ever hosted AFCON.
Of those three, Morocco is the most likely to be able to turn around a tournament-ready set of stadia on a year’s notice, but the might of South Africa and the spreading of the hosting burden across a number of countries could swing it the other way, especially given CAF’s new openness to multiple host arrangements.
Indeed, the next edition of AFCON, which will take place in 2027, is to be staged across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, the first time the tournament will have three host nations.
An additional logistical concern for prospective hosts is a March announcement from CAF president Patrice Motsepe, who revealed that, in future, each AFCON will feature 28 teams instead of 24 (as has been the case since an expansion from 16 in 2019).
