African Cup of Nations Logo (Credit: CAFonline)
THE African Cup of Nations will end up being hosted every other year as, after a review, previous plans for it to take place every four years were scrapped.
Last December, with the attention on the 2025/26 AFCON tournament, it was announced that the competition would change to having four years between each edition.
The reasoning was because the governing body were intending to scrap the tournament all together and replace it with one that would mirror the schedule of the World Cup and European Championships.
However, they have reverted back to the previous arrangement citing sustainability concerns.
The conclusion was that the time it would take to make any proposed replacement tournament self sufficient was too much to warrant going forward with any plans.
The news will benefit the players of those nations that compete as they get to showcase their skills on an international level on a more regular basis.
Keeping the cycle at every two years also helps AFCON as a whole as it provides more eyes on it by filling the gap between the two major tournaments in world football.
The next African Cup of Nations is due to happen in 2027, being jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
It is set to be a high stakes tournament based off of the controversy surrounding the 2026 final.
Senegal initially won the title in a penalty shootout over Morocco.
However, they were later stripped.
Manager Pepe Thiaw, in protest to a penalty being awarded against his side, took his players off of the field in the dying moments, causing a 17-minute delay to the match.
There are people who won’t be pleased at the news, not least the clubs who have to say goodbye to their star players for the duration of the tournament when it comes around.
