CAF restores two-year AFCON cycle after reversing four-year plan

The Africa Cup of Nations will return to a two-year cycle after the Confederation of African Football reversed its plan to hold the tournament every four years. BBC Sport reported the reversal on Friday, following a review of the decision announced in December. CAF confirmed that its executive committee had voted unanimously on October 29 to restore the biennial format.

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The financial prospects of the proposed Africa Nations League were central to the review. Under the abandoned arrangement, that competition was intended to take over AFCON's place as a tournament held every two years. BBC Sport reported that CAF acknowledged it would need several years to generate enough revenue to become self-sufficient, rather than immediately providing the financial replacement envisaged by the earlier plan.

CAF president Patrice Motsepe had signalled the reassessment at the governing body's strategy conference in Cabo Verde, held from October 7 to 9. In its announcement, CAF said the proposed competition would take time to deliver the resources needed to support African football's development and international competitiveness. The decision therefore reverses the four-year policy adopted last year.

The next AFCON remains scheduled for 2027, with Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda sharing hosting duties. CAF named 2028, 2031 and 2033 as the following editions. Despite the return to a biennial policy, those dates do not form an uninterrupted sequence of two-year intervals. Motsepe linked the absence of a 2030 tournament to that year's FIFA World Cup and the tradition of avoiding continental national-team finals in a World Cup year.

Motsepe said the reversal was intended to serve African football, CAF's 54 member associations and African players employed by clubs outside the continent. The announcement also identified the proposed Nations League's longer financial-development timetable as a concern, without presenting it as an immediate substitute for the existing championship.

The wider scheduling difficulty remains part of AFCON's recent history. BBC Sport noted that most recent editions have taken place during the European club season, creating longstanding calendar problems. The newly announced sequence sets out the years for the next four tournaments; it does not itself specify their match dates.