The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has officially invited its 54 Member Associations to submit bids to host the 2028, 2032 and 2036 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), marking the start of a new long-term host selection process for the continent’s flagship football tournament.
CAF announced the invitation on Friday, saying the bidding exercise is part of efforts to ensure a transparent, credible and internationally recognised process for selecting future host nations.
According to the continental football governing body, the bidding framework was developed with the support of independent advisory firm PwC, alongside technical, financial and legal advisers, to align the selection process with global best practices.
“The bidding framework establishes a transparent, credible and ethical process for the evaluation and selection of the host country or host countries for each AFCON edition,” CAF said in a statement.
CAF noted that the Africa Cup of Nations remains the continent’s premier sporting event, attracting a global television audience of more than 3.2 billion viewers and generating over six billion digital views across its platforms.
The governing body also confirmed that the 2027 TotalEnergies AFCON will be jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from June 19 to July 17, 2027. It added that, under its revised competition calendar, a senior men’s national team tournament will be staged every year except during FIFA World Cup years.
CAF did not specify a deadline for the submission of bids in its latest announcement but said further details regarding the bidding process and other national team competitions would be communicated in due course.
The opening of the bidding process is expected to trigger interest from several African nations seeking to host the tournament, which has grown significantly in global appeal and commercial value in recent years. The successful host nations for the 2028, 2032 and 2036 editions will be determined following CAF’s evaluation of the submitted bids based on infrastructure, financial capacity, security, government guarantees and other technical requirements.
