2027 Afcon: Caf chief Patrice Motsepe backs East Africa again, but will the region deliver?

Today, the same words continue to dominate Motsepe’s speeches as he finds himself again defending the joint “East Africa Pamoja” bid for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals set to be co-hosted by the three countries in June and July.

While addressing the press after chairing a CAF Executive Committee meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Friday, Motsepe said the exact dates for the 36th edition of Africa’s premier football tournament would be announced soon. Given that the three East African countries had for a long time not hosted a major continental football tournament, and Kenya having been stripped of the rights to host both the 1996 Afcon, and the 2018 Chan due to inadequate preparations, the air has been full of scepticism over the ability of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to stage a successful 2024 Chan, and 2027 Afcon.

Persistent delays in renovating stadiums and training grounds to a world-class standard for the 2024 Chan, which ended up being held in 2025, only fuelled doubts among football stakeholders. Yet, Motsepe, during his several visits to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, consistently exuded confidence that the three countries would stage “the most successful edition of Chan.”

Training fields 

“I am impressed with the ongoing construction and renovations of the football infrastructure and facilities in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda,” Motsepe said on January 14 last year when he announced the postponement of the tournament from February to August due to inadequate preparations by the three nations.

“I am confident that the stadiums, training fields, hotels, hospitals, and other infrastructure and facilities will be at the requisite CAF standards for hosting, in August 2025,” he said then. CAF has since scrapped Chan from the list of its competitions, with Motsepe terming it a “money loser.”

Earlier, on September 16, 2024, during a press briefing in Nairobi after chairing a CAF Executive Committee meeting, Motsepe caused laughter among journalists when he said that he “trusts” Kenya’s President William Ruto to fulfil his promise of ensuring that the country is ready to co-host the tournament.

“I want to conclude by expressing my confidence that Chan next year in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda will be the very best in the history of the competition. I have got total confidence,” the South African businessman said then.

Come August 2 last year, the former president of South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns branded the 2024 Chan the most successful in the history of the competition.

“I want to thank the presidents and people of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for staging what has been the most successful edition of Chan in the history of the competition,” Motsepe said.

If anyone thought that the successful hosting of Chan would silence the doubters, they were mistaken as questions have recently resurfaced regarding the three countries’ ability to successfully stage the Afcon.

With Morocco having staged what many have described as the best tournament in the history of Afcon, veteran Ivorian journalist Mamadou Gaye, on January 17, asked the CAF president if taking the competition to East Africa was not going to lower its standards.

Mamadou claimed that the region lacked proper road infrastructure and world-class stadiums. “Now the next one (Afcon) is going to three East African countries where I have already been. No roads within the countries, some of my colleagues told me, from one country to another, it would take you two days to drive. My biggest worry is that we are not going to lower the stand by going to East Africa. What is the solution?” posed Mamadou.

In his response, Motsepe defended the “East Africa Pamoja” bid using familiar terms he has employed before, such as “confidence” and “enormously successful.”

Develop football 

“…I have a duty to develop football all over Africa. I can’t have the competition only in those four countries where you’ve got the infrastructure. You have to create opportunities for other countries to build infrastructure at the World Cup level and develop football in those countries as well. I’m confident that the Afcon in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda will be enormously successful…”

On Friday, Motsepe found himself in the familiar territory of defending Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to co-host a successful 2027 Afcon following claims that the tournament would be moved to 2028 due to the inability by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to prepare in good time. “Just to re-emphasise what I said in Morocco, which is that the Afcon next year in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania is going to be enormously successful,” said the CAF president. “Over the last few days, I have seen a lot of media speculation that there was an allegation that I am here to tell Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda that I am taking away Afcon because our three countries are not going to be ready. That is totally unfounded…I am enormously confident that we will succeed. Will there be challenges? There are always challenges,” he continued, citing the Afcon editions in Cameroon (2019) and Cote d’Ivoire, which were delayed for two years due to lack of prerequisite infrastructure to host them.

With just about 17 months remaining before the Afcon’s kick-off, the three countries have intensified their preparations as the tournament returns to East Africa for the first time since 1976, when Ethiopia hosted it as an eight-nation tournament.

In Kenya, the match venues are the Talanta Sports Complex and Moi International Sports Complex (MISC), Kasarani, while Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret has been listed as an alternative match venue. The training grounds are MISC Kasarani “A” and “B”, Nyayo National Stadium, Ulinzi Sports Complex, Police Sacco Stadium, Kenya Utalii College Sports Ground, Kenya Academy of Sports “A” and “B” and Kirigiti Stadium in Kiambu.

Uganda promised to build Hoima Stadium and Akii Bua Stadium in Lira, in addition to the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala. Work on Hoima City is already complete. The training venues include Fufa Kadiba Stadium, Muteesa II Stadium, Kyambogo University Training pitch, Makerere University Sports Grounds, and Mandela National Annex Stadium.

In Tanzania, the match venues are Benjamin Mkapa Stadium, New Amaan Sports Complex in Zanzibar, Samia Suluhu Hassan Stadium in Arusha, and Dodoma Stadium. The training venues include Azam FC Training Complex, Uhuru Stadium, KMC Complex, Police Academy Grounds and Karume Memorial Stadium.

Proper road network 

CAF also expects the three countries to have proper road network, functional airports, top hotels, world-class airports and top hospitals.

Recalling how the three countries came close to being stripped of the rights to co-host Chan, the chairman of Kenya’s Local Organising Committee, Nicholas Musonye, recently told Nation Sport that the three countries must complete preparations of their venues by November 2026. Infrastructure, security, hospitality, and marketing.

Adequate budget allocation, timely payment of the hosting rights fees, and the establishment of a joint steering committee by the three host nations are among the things Musonye said the three countries must do to match standards set by Morocco.

“If Caf president was not very keen on us to do this event (Chan), it would have gone away because the entire executive of CAF wanted to go away. The president put his foot down that he made a commitment that the Pamoja Chan must take place in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania,” Musonye said.

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