AFCON biennial debate has been reopened as Motsepe defends CAF’s independence

By Velile Mnyandu
10th October 2026

SABC Sport has heard that the matter of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) going back to being held every two years was one of the key points during the meeting of the 54 member associations yesterday.

Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe also confirmed it, during the CAF Strategy Conference.

CAF made a decision in December last year, to move from holding the AFCON every two years to every four years after the 2028 edition.

"The AFCON, we took a decision as Africa because there were a lot of issues but I can guarantee you, we've discussed it over the last few days . We are looking at everything including having the AFCON coming back every two years,” Motsepe said.

“We are very clear, there are also some discussions and all sorts of promises and when we looked at it at the time, we said wow, this is interesting but always knew."

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Despite the reports that this is part of FIFA and UEFA’s war to return the AFCON to every two years, SABC Sport understands that the world football mother body is not entirely happy with this decision, but also it’s a decision that shows African Football’s independence in taking care of its own needs and interests.

Motsepe was asked what has changed between now and 10 months ago, when the decision was made to change the frequency of the AFCON from every two years to four years.

"We took proper advice and the decision was taken because taking all of the facts and information into account at the time was the right thing to do and it was also gonna have significant benefit because there was a significant issue that we were looking at with one of our major sponsors,” he added.

“We always had discomfort with a four year gap and that's why if you recall, we initially said the African Nations League was gonna be identical to the AFCON, it was indeed the solution.

“So, you were gonna have the current AFCON as we have it every two years and every four years there was gonna be, we were exploring a 28 team AFCON and of course many of the member associations came back and said, president Motsepe, if you are going to have 28 national teams at an AFCON, many of us will not qualify and it goes against this principle that you've emphasised about having every zone hosting the World Cup."