Motsepe: CAF considering moving AFCON back to two-year cycle

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe has said that the organisation is considering moving the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) back to a biennial cycle, having only announced plans to scrap it in December.

Speaking at a CAF strategy conference in Cape Verde, Motsepe did not fully commit to backtracking on plans to switch to a four-year cycle from 2028, but made it clear it was exploring a switch back to the traditional calendar.

"We've discussed it over the last few days. We are looking at everything including having the AFCON coming back every two years. We are very clear," Motsepe said on Friday.

"There were all sorts of discussions and all sorts of promises that -- at the time we looked at it -- looked very interesting."

CAF had initially announced plans for an African Nations League to fill up gaps in a stretched AFCON calendar.

Motsepe has generally retained strong ties to embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino and CAF affirmed its backing for the Switzerland-born administrator this week despite outcry over botched plans for FIFA to create a commercial subsidiary managed with private investors.

However, the CAF president has now hinted the confederation is considering backtracking on an initial decision which appeared to have Infantino's support.

Infantino had urged CAF to hold the AFCON every four years, rather than two, in early 2020. In December 2025, Motsepe announced plans to do exactly that.

Those plans are now up in the air. AFCON 2027 is scheduled to take place in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with the bidding process underway for the following year's tournament.

However, there is uncertainty over the future of Africa's competition cycle.

Motsepe reaffirmed his confidence in the readiness for next year's tournament, acknowledging problems in the preparations of venues, but saying they would be addressed.

"We are going to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda next year. It's going to be enormously successful," Motsepe said.

After claiming that each AFCON he had presided over had been the most successful in the tournament's history, always eclipsing the last, he reminded the audience of doubts ahead of the 2021 tournament -- the first of his reign as president -- which was held belatedly in 2022 in Cameroon.

"When I became president, the first thing they said to me was: 'Cancel Cameroon. They are not ready; the stadiums are not ready.' I said: 'I don't come from that culture. I come from a culture of believing in Africa.'"