CAF reverts to two-year AFCON cycle and scraps four-year plan

The Africa Cup of Nations will return to a two-year cycle after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) scrapped plans to stage it every four years.

The decision was unanimously approved by the CAF Executive Committee on Thursday, 29 October 2026, reversing a decision taken in December 2025 to move the tournament to a four-year cycle after the 2027 edition.

CAF President Patrice Motsepe had flagged the review at the CAF Strategy Conference in Cabo Verde from 7 to 9 October, saying the organisation was reconsidering the change following concerns over its impact on African football.

According to CAF, the review was prompted by the realisation that the proposed Africa Nations League — the pan-African competition intended to replace AFCON as a biennial tournament — would take several years to generate the substantial financial resources needed to make CAF competitions globally competitive and self-supporting.

Motsepe said the decision to restore the two-year cycle was aimed at protecting and promoting the interests of African football, CAF’s 54 member associations and African players based at clubs outside the continent.

He confirmed that the next TotalEnergies AFCON will be held in 2027 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The subsequent editions will then take place in 2028, 2031 and 2033, with no tournament in 2030, the year of the FIFA World Cup, in line with FIFA tradition.

“The decision by the CAF Exco that the AFCON should take place every two years was based on advancing, protecting and promoting the interest of African football,” Motsepe said.

“We were also concerned by the several years required before the proposed new Africa Nations League competition could make the substantial financial and football development contributions for African football and CAF competitions to be globally competitive.”

He said the tournament was also about celebrating African football and the continent’s rich and diverse cultures, and bringing together people from Africa’s 54 countries, the diaspora and around the world, adding that he was confident the 2027 edition would be very successful.