Online Reporter
NEXT year’s Africa Cup of Nations could be postponed until 2028 owing to doubts over the readiness of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to host the tournament, in a move that would lead the Confederation of African Football to scrap one edition of their show-piece competition.
The Guardian understands that CAF’s executive committee will discuss the proposal when they meet in Dar es Sa-laam today, with Morocco’s expected withdrawal as hosts for next month’s Women’s AFCON also high on the agenda.
In December the CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, announced AFCON would be staged every four years instead of every two years from 2028, and said the 2027 tournament would take place in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with the 2029 edition brought forward to 2028.
Despite rumoured interest from South Africa and Botswana in jointly hosting that 2028 tournament, there is growing expectation that the 2027 edition will be pushed back 12 months.
According to several sources in the ExCo, there are major concerns over the infrastructure in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and their ability to cope with a 24-team tournament due to be spread over 10 cities.
Last August there were challenges including ticketing and security measures around the stadiums in Kenya, TanzaXnia and Uganda that hosted the Africa Nations Championships for domestic-based players.
There are also understood to be issues with finding time in the international calendar to complete the qualification given the potential involvement of 10 African teams at this summer’s World Cup.
CAF did not comment on any of the claims.
Any postponement would mean scrapping the tournament scheduled for 2028, for which Ethiopia had signalled its intention to rival a South Africa-Botswana bid.
That would allow CF to introduce their plan for a first African Nations League to take place in 2029.
The continental football mother body want that to replace the biennial AFCON and CHAN as their chief source of income.
Last month Motsepe insisted that the 2027 tournament would go ahead.
“I have a duty to develop football all over Africa,” he said. “I can’t have competitions only in those four countries where you’ve got the infrastructure. You’ve got to create opportunities for the other countries to build infrastructure as well. I’m confident that the Afcon in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda will be enormously successful.”
There is confusion over the Women’s AFCON due to start on March 17 after South Africa said it was ready to step in if required after Morocco apparently indicated it could no longer stage the tournament. — the guardian.co.uk
