African football is set for a historic transformation as the Africa Cup of Nations, the continent’s flagship international men’s football tournament, will move from a biennial format to a four-year cycle after the 2028 edition.
The announcement was made on Saturday, December 20, 2025, by Patrice Motsepe, President of the Confederation of African Football, the governing body responsible for organising football competitions across Africa. Motsepe disclosed the decision during a media briefing in Rabat, Morocco’s capital city, on the eve of the opening match of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations hosted by Morocco.
Motsepe explained that the change forms part of a broader restructuring of Africa’s international football calendar to align more effectively with an increasingly congested global football schedule. For decades, the tournament had been staged every two years, a format that provided regular revenue streams for national football associations across Africa.
However, the Confederation of African Football now plans to offset the reduced frequency of the tournament through the introduction of a new annual African Nations League competition, modelled after the Union of European Football Associations Nations League.
Okay News reports that the new competition is expected to deliver increased prize money, stronger commercial partnerships, and more consistent competitive fixtures for African national teams.
“Our focus now is on this Africa Cup of Nations, but in 2027 we will be going to Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and the Africa Cup of Nations after that will be in 2028,” Motsepe told reporters. “Then, after the Fédération Internationale de Football Association Club World Cup in 2029, we will have the first African Nations League… with more prize money, more resources, more competition. As part of this arrangement, the Africa Cup of Nations will now take place once every four years.”
He further disclosed that the Confederation of African Football will formally open a bidding process for countries interested in hosting the 2028 edition of the tournament, inviting renewed infrastructure development across the continent.
Historically, the Africa Cup of Nations has been held every two years since its inaugural edition in 1957, but in recent years it has faced repeated scheduling conflicts. Over the last fifteen years, organisers have struggled to place the tournament within a global calendar increasingly dominated by European club competitions and international tournaments.
The 2019 edition in Egypt, North Africa’s most populous country, was moved to June and July to reduce disruption to European domestic leagues. However, subsequent tournaments in Cameroon in 2022 and Ivory Coast in 2024 reverted to January and February to avoid heavy rainy seasons.
The latest Morocco-hosted tournament was originally planned for June and July 2025 but was rescheduled due to the inaugural expanded Fédération Internationale de Football Association Club World Cup, hosted by the United States. Additional pressure came from preparations for the 2026 Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup, jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and the expanded Union of European Football Associations Champions League format, which now occupies more months of the football calendar.
Motsepe said the long-term solution will be to stage future tournaments from December into January, a period when several European leagues take seasonal breaks, although he acknowledged that England’s Premier League remains heavily scheduled during that window.
“Our primary duty is to African football, but we also have a duty to the players from Africa playing for the best clubs in Europe,” he said. “We want to make sure that there is more synchronisation and that the global calendar allows the best African players every year to be in Africa.”
He added that the African Nations League will initially be regionalised, with sixteen teams each in the eastern, western, and central-southern zones, and six teams in the northern zone. Matches will be played in September and October, with zonal champions advancing to a November finals tournament hosted in a single location.
In addition, prize money for the ongoing Morocco tournament has been increased, with the eventual champions set to receive $10 million, up from $7 million awarded to the winners of the 2024 edition in Ivory Coast.
