CAF may reverse four-year AFCON cycle, return to biennial format

The Confederation of African Football is reconsidering one of its most consequential recent decisions. Less than a year after announcing that the Africa Cup of Nations would shift from a biennial schedule to a four-year cycle beginning in 2028, CAF president Patrice Motsepe signaled on Friday that the organization is now actively reviewing whether to reverse course and return the tournament to its traditional two-year format.

Motsepe made the statement during the final day of CAF's three-day strategy conference in Cape Verde. The shift to a four-year calendar, announced last December, was designed to align African football's flagship competition with FIFA's international match schedule. But the decision generated immediate friction. When AFCON took place in Morocco in 2025, the backlash was palpable—many observers and officials argued that the change had been made to accommodate European interests rather than serve African football's own rhythms and needs.

The criticism clearly stung. Motsepe, a South African billionaire who also serves as a FIFA vice-president, pushed back forcefully against the suggestion that CAF had capitulated to external pressure. "It is nonsense, absolute rubbish," he said, that the confederation was taking orders from FIFA or UEFA. He reframed the organization's core mission in stark terms: "My No. 1 job, my No. 1 duty is to protect, promote, and advance the interests of Africa." He acknowledged that there are moments when CAF must stand firm and refuse demands from outside bodies.

Yet Motsepe's language about the AFCON schedule itself was notably softer. Rather than defending the four-year decision, he indicated that CAF had spent recent days reviewing the matter comprehensively. "We are looking at everything, including having the AFCON coming back every two years," he said. "We're very clear." The statement left the door open to a full reversal, though he stopped short of announcing one outright.

The timing of this recalibration matters. Motsepe was speaking at a conference where he had just reaffirmed CAF's unanimous support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who is facing significant criticism globally. Infantino used the occasion to remind African football leaders of the investments FIFA has directed toward the continent during his decade in office. The optics of appearing responsive to African concerns about AFCON's schedule may have served Motsepe's broader diplomatic interests at that moment.

Motsepe also used the conference to address another source of uncertainty: the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, scheduled to take place across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Recent reports from French media had suggested that construction projects were falling behind schedule and that some CAF members were quietly pushing to relocate the tournament. Motsepe dismissed these concerns and reaffirmed the tournament would proceed as planned. "You have to believe in Africa," he said. "There will be problems, there will be failures, fine, but we will be there. That's what Mandela taught us."

The question now is whether CAF will formally announce a return to biennial AFCON or whether the organization will settle on some middle ground. The four-year cycle was meant to reduce the burden on host nations and align with global football's calendar. A reversion to every two years would restore the tournament's traditional cadence but would require renegotiating those same logistical and scheduling concerns that prompted the change in the first place. What remains clear is that the decision made last December is no longer settled.