The Confederation of African Football (CAF) received three official bids from Morocco, Ethiopia, and a joint bid from South Africa and Botswana to host the 2028 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), before Thursday’s deadline for the submission of expressions of interest.
AFCON 2028 will usher in CAF’s new era of staging the tournament every four years. The change was announced by CAF President Patrice Motsepe during the just-concluded edition in Morocco.
According to Motsepe, the decision is part of a significant restructuring of the continental calendar to better align with an increasingly congested global schedule. The reform will also see the introduction of an annual African Nations League competition — similar to the UEFA Nations League — starting from 2029.
Morocco hosted the tournament for the second time between December 2025 and January 2026, with the North Africans earning praise for setting a new infrastructural benchmark for the competition.
Ethiopia, one of the four countries at the maiden AFCON in 1957, has hosted the tournament on three previous occasions — in 1962, when they won their first and only title, as well as in 1968 and 1976.
South Africa previously hosted the tournament in 1996 and 2013, while their proposed co-hosts for 2028, Botswana, have not hosted the competition before.
Before the 2028 tournament, the final edition of the biennial AFCON will be staged in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda in 2027.
Meanwhile, CAF will hold an executive committee meeting on Friday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Items on the agenda include updates on the 2027 AFCON preparations, while a decision on the host nation(s) for the 2028 edition is also expected.
