The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) will be staged every four years following an edition planned for 2028 in a major change to what is currently a biennial showpiece, African football chief Patrice Motsepe announced on Saturday.
The head of the Confederation of African Football announced the adjustment as part of a comprehensive restructure of the continent’s international game to better fit into a busy worldwide calendar.
An AFCON every two years was a crucial source of revenue for African national associations, but Motsepe believes the advent of an annual African Nations League competition, similar to the UEFA Nations League, will now assist in improving coffers.
“Our focus now is on this AFCON, but in 2027 we will be going to Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, and the AFCON after that will be in 2028,” Motsepe told reporters in Rabat on Saturday, on the eve of the opening game of this year’s Morocco-hosted Cup of Nations.
He stated that a bidding process would be opened up for nations interested in hosting the 2028 Cup of Nations.
“Then, after the FIFA Club World Cup in 2029, we will have the first African Nations League… with more prize money, more resources, and more competition.
“As part of this arrangement, the AFCON will now take place once every four years.”
Since its inception in 1957, the Cup of Nations has typically been contested every two years, but in the last 15 years, it has struggled to find a suitable spot in the international calendar.
This year’s tournament in Morocco will be the eighth since the 2012 edition in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
The 2019 edition in Egypt took place between June and July, a departure from the typical early-year scheduling that was considered as a method to appease large European teams by avoiding playing in the middle of their seasons.
However, the last two AFCONs, in Cameroon in 2022 and Ivory Coast in 2024, were moved to January-February to avoid clashing with the rainy season in those regions.
The current Cup of Nations was scheduled to take place in June and July of this year but was moved owing to the first edition of FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup in the United States.
However, CAF was unable to wait until next June due to the 2026 World Cup, and the Cup of Nations can no longer be held in January and February due to the new UEFA Champions League format.
The solution is to begin in December and go until the New Year, when several European leagues—where so many African stars play—take a break, but the Premier League has a full calendar.
Motsepe stated that the adjustment, along with the launch of the Nations League, was decided “to make sure the football calendar worldwide is more in harmony.”
“Of course, our primary duty is to African football, but we also have a duty to the players from Africa playing for the best clubs in Europe,” he added.
“We want to make sure that there is more synchronization and that the global calendar allows the best African players every year to be in Africa.”
He stated that the new yearly Nations League will begin by being regionalized, with 16 teams in the east, west, and central-southern zones, as well as six in the north.
Matches will be contested in September and October, with the best teams from each zone advancing to the finals, which will be held in one site in November.
Meanwhile, he announced that the prize money for the Cup of Nations in Morocco will be boosted to $10 million, up from $7 million for the victors in Ivory Coast in 2024.
