Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe has disclosed that the organisation is now mulling over returning to hosting AFCON every two years after their decision to install a four-year cycle was met with criticism.
Motsepe revealed this during a CAF Strategy Conference in Cape Verde on Friday, saying the competition’s future edition dates were being looked into.
“We have debated many things these last days, and we are looking at everything, including the AFCON coming back every two years,” he added.
The idea follows CAF confirming that the tournament will take place in 2027 and 2028, with a plan to go into a four-year cycle after that, with the subsequent edition in 2032.
The decision was made to make way for the new African Nations League competition on an annual basis, which Motsepe believes will open up more financial opportunities for African football.
Nevertheless, this departure from the conventional two-year model was not well received by some parts of the football community.
AFCON has been run on a biennial basis since 1957, when the first tournament was held. It is a major reversal for the continent.
In addition, CAF revealed that it would be implementing Video Assistant Referee (VAR) across the group stages of the CAF Champions League and the Confederation Cup this season – a change from only using the technology during knockout fixtures.
