SAFA plans meeting with Minister McKenzie to drive AFCON 2028 bid forward

With the Confederation of African Football (CAF) setting a deadline on the first of next month for the submission of expressions of interest from countries looking to host the 2028 edition, SAFA and the SA government will have to meet it. 

Jordaan says it’s this meeting that will give them the way forward...

"I will arrange with him to come to the next SAFA executive meeting and ask him just to come and address the members on this question. We then have to submit our proposal to CAF, and then we'll take it from there.

"His energy is very high and he is very enthusiastic about it. I'm happy that we have a government now that wants to support football, and I'm sure the executive of SAFA will support him."

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There’s been talk that SA will possibly rope in neighbouring countries like Botswana and Namibia as part of the 2028 bid, but this will be confirmed after this planned meeting.

Should SAFA proceed with this bid, it will be the first time they have bid for the AFCON tournament and possibly be awarded the hosting rights. On the two previous occasions when they hosted the AFCON—in 1996 and 2013—they came in as last-minute replacements for Kenya and Libya. 

Jordaan looks at their previous bids...

"We never actually won an AFCON bid. In 1996, the AFCON was awarded to Kenya, but six months before the tournament, CAF established that there would be no way for Kenya to deliver because they weren't ready.

"The same happened in 2013 with Libya due to political turmoil."

The Southern African region has not hosted the AFCON since 2013, while Central Africa has hosted it three times, and it’s been held twice in North Africa and twice in West Africa. The next edition (2027) will be held in East Africa, and Jordaan feels this could be the COSAFA region’s time...

"In both previous cases, South Africa were the plan B option, but for the World Cup we were the plan A. This will be the first time we make a bid and hopefully win to host AFCON."

Another tournament that McKenzie is keen to host is the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which has never been held in Africa. SAFA tried to bid for the 2027 edition but dropped out of the race before it was confirmed for Brazil. 

Jordaan is not ruling out another go for future editions...