October 14 – CAF is preparing to reverse course on the Africa Cup of Nations and restore its biennial cycle, barely 10 months after Patrice Motsepe announced that the continent’s flagship tournament would move to every four years.
The switch is expected to go before CAF’s executive committee in Abidjan next month and is gathering broad support among the African associations. But the speed of the reversal has exposed fresh questions over how major decisions are being made at the confederation – as the heat turns up on Motsepe’s own position.
Several federation presidents were reportedly unaware that Motsepe intended to reopen the AFCON frequency debate before last week’s strategy conference in Cape Verde. The original four-year plan had only been announced in December and was presented as part of a wider overhaul of CAF’s national-team calendar as it aligned with FIFA’s request for the wider international calendar.
Motsepe’s comments have shifted calendar thinking again. As recently as July, CAF was inviting bids to host AFCON in 2028, 2032 and 2036, while promising a senior men’s national-team competition in every non-World Cup year. A return to a two-year AFCON cycle would mean an abandonment of that calendar proposal.
The immediate issue for CAF is 2027, when it is scheduled to stage its next AFCON in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from June 19-July 17. While Motsepe has publicly backed the hosts during inspection visits last month, and CAF said progress had been made, there is still plenty to do across stadium, transport and tournament infrastructure before next summer, and there are clearly doubts over whether the three-country project will be ready on time.
One possibility for the tournament is a return to playing it during the Christmas and New Year period, but that would drop the tournament to conflict with the European club season that is has tried so hard to separate itself from.
The current uncertainty comes against a backdrop of unease around the current CAF president.
The South African billionaire has said he does not intend to seek a third term when his mandate expires in 2029, and potential successors are already beginning to circle.
Cameroon federation president Samuel Eto’o, Mauritania’s Ahmed Yahya and Côte d’Ivoire federation chief Yacine Idriss Diallo are among the names rumoured to be ready to take a run at the presidency.
Motsepe used the Cape Verde gathering to pledge what he described as Africa’s unanimous and unconditional backing for Infantino’s re-election next March, despite indications that a number of African associations are unconvinced.
There is a commercial deadline also on the horizon. CAF’s current broadcast arrangement with IMG expires after the 2027 AFCON and the confederation is considering offers for its next rights cycle. How often its biggest tournament is played obviously matters to the value of that package.
CAF is trying to juggle the future of its most valuable competition with uncertainty over the hosting of its next edition, its broadcast cycle and who will ultimately lead the organisation beyond the Motsepe era.
