NAIROBI, Kenya, February 11, 2026 – The 2027 African Cup of Nations (Afcon), set to be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, could be postponed due to the unpreparedness of the three countries.
A report by the Guardian indicates that the Confederation of African Football (Caf) are set to discuss the possibility of pushing the continental tournament to 2028 as the three co-hosts labour to finalise the construction of the designated sports facilities in time.
Ahead of Caf’s Executive Committee (ExCo) meeting in Dar es Salaaam, Tanzania on Friday, doubts persist over whether the three East African neighbours are ready for the rigours of hosting the 24-team tourney, to be spread across 10 cities.
This may prompt the continental governing body to push it back by 12 months, thereby forcing the 2028 Afcon to be held a year later.
To complicate matters, Caf had earlier announced that Afcon will revert to a quadrennial competition from 2028.
South Africa and Botswana have expressed an interest to co-host the 2028 Afcon as have Ethiopia.
The decision to push Afcon 2027 to 12 months later could allow Caf to transition to the four-year cycle in addition to allowing teams that will be competing in this year’s World Cup to prepare well for the competition.
Caf has also introduced a new competition — the Africa Nations League — initially set for 2029 while scrapping the Africa Nations Championships (CHAN).
A confident country
The latest rumours come amid bullish declaration from Ministry of Sports officials in Kenya as well as the local organising committee (LOC) chair Nicholas Musonye about the country’s readiness to host the competition.
On Wednesday afternoon, Musonye expressed confidence that Kenya is comfortably capable of hosting the tournament, even by itself.
“You go to Talanta (Stadium)…what you see in Talanta is what you saw in Morocco, so we are not far away (in terms of quality). People say Kenya is a village, but it is not a village. We have the best hotels in the world. We would have hosted this AFCON on our own without going to Uganda and Tanzania,” Musonye said.
Two of the country’s biggest stadia — Nyayo and Kasarani — that are set to be used for the tourney will be closed after the coming weekend for year-long renovations.
At the same time, the 60,000-seater Talanta Stadium is currently under construction, with Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya recently revealing that it is 85 per cent complete.
