Africa Cup moves to 4-year cycle as African soccer gets overhaul with new Nations League

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — African soccer is moving the Africa Cup of Nations to a four-year cycle from 2028 and launching a new African Nations League in 2029.

Patrice Motsepe, the president of the Confederation of African Football, announced the changes Saturday during his press conference ahead of the 2025 Africa Cup hosted by Morocco.

Motsepe said the 2027 Africa Cup to be staged in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania will go ahead as planned and the following edition scheduled for 2029 will be moved forward to 2028. The next Africa Cup after that will be in 2032.

This allows the first African Nations League to take place in 2029. Motsepe said it would involve each of the continent’s 54 members, divided into four geographical zones, with games in September and October before the finals in November.

“There’s going to be a competition every year where the best African players who play in Europe and worldwide will be with us on the continent,” Motsepe said.

He was unable to say when the 2028 Africa Cup could take place. Scheduling of Africa’s premier national competition has been a consistent issue. This year’s tournament was pushed back from a planned summer start so it wouldn’t clash with FIFA’s revamped Club World Cup.

“What’s going to happen now is you’ll have the equivalent of an AFCON every year,” Motsepe said. “You’ll have the best African players in the world participating and playing in African football at the highest level in the continent every year.”

Motsepe, who was flanked by FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström for the announcement, said CAF was “in discussions with all our stakeholders and taking into account the global fixtures.”

Grafström called it a “historic decision” and said FIFA would coordinate with CAF.

“I want to stay in touch in order to coordinate as much as possible the dates, like we did for this edition as well,” Grafström said. “It took a bit of time but in the end the compromise was found, which was accepted by everyone.”

Switching the Africa Cup from every two years to a four-year cycle takes it in line with UEFA’s European Championship, the next of which will also be in 2028.

“Historically the AFCON was the prime focus where we could get resources to fund African football,” Motsepe said. “In terms of this new dispensation, we will be getting resources every year.”

Having no Africa Cup in 2029 also means it won’t clash with the next Club World Cup.

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AP at the Africa Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-cup-of-nations