The East Africa’s Pamoja Bid by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania on Wednesday won the rights to host the 36th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.
The joint candidacy beat other bids from Botswana, Egypt and Senegal following a vote conducted by members of the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) during their meeting in Cairo.
During the event, Kenya was represented by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba and the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania’s selection represents the first time nations from the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) will stage the tournament since Ethiopia in 1976.
“The three nations came together because our standards and requirements are very high,” added Motsepe, likening expectations for the organisation of tournaments to those held by European administrative body Uefa and the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol).
“Sometimes it requires hundreds of millions – sometimes billions – in infrastructure. It makes me proud when football brings countries together. Afcon 2027 is going to be a huge success.”
The next tournament will take place in Ivory Coast from 13 January until 11 February 2024. The draw will take place in Abidjan on 12 October at 1900 GMT.
2027 Africa Cup of Nations
The 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the 2027 AFCON or CAN 2027, is scheduled to be the 36th edition of the now bicentennial African international association football tournament organized by CAF.
The edition of the tournament is expected to be the 3rd to take place in the northern summer since the 2019 edition in order to reduce scheduling conflicts with European clubs.
Host selection
On 7 April 2023, a decision was taken by CAF that the hosts for the 2025 and 2027 Africa Cup of Nations will be chosen at the same day. They also announced that there will be four bids for the 2027 edition.
Bidding timeline
On 27 April 2023, the CAF Executive Committee announced the bidding process of the tournament. The bidding timeline is as follows:
- 23 May 2023: Deadline for Member Associations to submit their final bid, including all bidding and hosting documents (hosting agreement, host cities agreement, government guarantees, etc.), which should be signed.
- 1 June-15 July 2023: Inspection visits
- 27 September 2023: Appointment of Host Country/Countries by the CAF Executive Committee
Bids
- Senegal
- Botswana – Initially a joint bid with Namibia, but on 19 April 2022, Namibia pulled out after the national government failed to approve on a budget
- Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda
Abandoned bids
- Algeria – Also bid for the 2025 edition. (on 26 September 2023, Algeria announced her withdrawal of both 2025 and 2027 bids).
- Botswana and Namibia
- Zambia
- Burkina Faso
Qualification
Qualified teams
The following teams have qualified for the tournament.
Venues
CAF’s established requirements for the six stadiums under construction are as follows:
| Number of Stadiums | Capacity (Minimum) |
|---|---|
| 2 Stadiums | 40,000 |
| 2 Stadiums | 20,000 |
| 2 Stadiums | 15,000 |
