Caf reverses plan to stage Africa Cup of Nations on four-year cycle

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has abandoned plans to stage the Africa Cup of Nations every four years, reversing a decision announced 10 months ago after discussions at its strategy conference in Cape Verde earlier this month. President Patrice Motsepe said the U-turn was taken to advance, protect and promote the interests of African football.

Afcon has predominantly been held every two years since its first edition in 1957, with only two three-year gaps in the 1960s and a one-year gap between the 2012 and 2013 tournaments. On the eve of the 2025 finals in Morocco, Motsepe announced the competition would move to a four-year cycle from 2028 so the global calendar could "be significantly more synchronised and harmonised". Critics noted that the proposed scheduling change would reduce the frequency of Africa's flagship event, which in recent years has been staged in the European club season and prompted disputes over player release. Football Association of Zambia official Sydney Mungala told the BBC: "I think the general sentiment around the continent has been that the two-year cycle has served the continent very well," and added, "The idea of pushing it to a four-year cycle was a bit of a surprise, maybe a concern, to the bulk of the African federations."

The 10-month reversal followed internal debate over decision-making and the viability of alternative competitions. The executive committee had approved the four-year change last December without submitting it to a general assembly, drawing criticism from Algerian journalist Maher Mezahi: "These kinds of decisions should be put to the general assembly, they should be debated and discussed for months at a time," and "Afcon is the locomotive by which Caf funds all of its other competitions." Caf subsequently polled its 54 member associations on their preference and the executive committee voted to restore the biennial format; Motsepe said the decision was in the "best interest of African football" and would contribute to the development and growth of the sport. He also expressed doubts about the new Nations League, saying it would take "several years" before it could make "the substantial financial and football development contributions" needed to help the continental game be "self-supporting".

Financial considerations underpinned much of the debate. Afcon has developed into Caf's biggest revenue generator, with a profit of $114m forecast for Afcon 2025, up from $75m for the previous finals in Ivory Coast. Morocco 2025 was projected to generate $192m, representing 66% of Caf's total revenue from competitions across men's, women's and age-group football. Mungala highlighted Afcon's wider importance to national associations, saying: "We have 11 [Zambian] national teams and only two are partly sponsored by government," and adding, "The rest have to be supported from the FA's coffers. We actually fund some of these programmes from the support that we get from Caf and Fifa."

Plans for new club and national competitions influenced Caf's thinking. Motsepe had proposed an annual Africa Nations League to create a "world-class competition every year" and reduce reliance on Afcon, but past failures have undermined confidence in rapid reform: the Africa Super League, announced by Caf in 2022 with projected annual revenues of $200m, was discontinued after one edition and Motsepe admitted that commercial deals fell short of expectations, saying, "We didn't proceed as quickly because the partners that were giving us money were not giving us the deals we thought we would be happy with,".

Relations with Fifa and its president also featured in discussions. Fifa president Gianni Infantino first publicly proposed holding Afcon every four years in February 2020; Motsepe rejected the idea after his election but later developed a close relationship with Infantino, whose drive to expand the Fifa World Cup to 48 teams "has won him backing across the continent." Infantino's position was described as under threat after a July leak about selling stakes in Fifa competitions, and he "came to Cape Verde to generate support, And, by and large, Africa gave him that support," Mezahi said. "But I think they did that in a quid pro quo - they gave him the support in return for some concessions. "And I think the main concession was the return of the Africa Cup of Nations [to a two-year cycle]. "It shows that Africa is willing to assert its influence and look after its interests, even in the face of the global game's interest."

Sadio Mane's Senegal won Afcon 2025 but the result was later overturned in favour of Morocco, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport will determine the ultimate destination of the title. The 2027 Afcon is scheduled to be held in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from 19 June to 17 July next year; Caf has kept the planned 2028 tournament in place, with subsequent editions scheduled for 2031 and 2033, and the proposed kick-off date for the Africa Nations League is September 2029.