CAF Unveils New Rules, Winners of Morocco 2025 to Earn $10million, AFCON to Hold Every Four Years
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced the elite continental football competition, the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) will now be staged every four years.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe in a press conference on Saturday in Rabat, Morocco announced that the new rule will kick-start after the scheduled 2028 edition.
The Africa Cup of Nations will be staged every four years following an edition planned for 2028 in a major change to what is currently a biennial showpiece, African football chief Patrice Motsepe announced on Saturday.
Motsepe also announced a new annual National League league competition fashioned after the UEFA nations league.
The Nations’ League will help to cushion the effect of revocation of the biannual AFCON which served to generate revenue for most African Football Associations.
According to Motsepe, “Our focus now is on this AFCON but in 2027 we will be going to Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and the AFCON after that will be in 2028.”
“Then after the FIFA 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 AFCON now will take place once every four years.”
The AFCON has usually been held at two-year intervals since the very first edition in 1957, but over the last 15 years it has struggled to find a convenient place in the global calendar.
This year’s tournament in Morocco will be the eighth to be held going back to the 2012 edition in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
The 2019 edition in Egypt took place in June and July, a move away from the traditional slot at the beginning of the year seen as a way of appeasing major European clubs by avoiding playing in the middle of their season.
But the last two AFCONs, in Cameroon in 2022 and Ivory Coast in 2024, reverted to January-February to avoid coinciding with the rainy season in those regions.
The latest Cup of Nations was initially due to take place in June and July this year but was forced to move because of the first edition of FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup in the United States.
However, CAF could not wait until next June because of the 2026 World Cup, and they can no longer stage the Cup of Nations in January and February because of the new UEFA Champions League format
The solution is to start in December and continue into the New Year, at a time when some European leagues — where so many African stars play — take a break, but the Premier League has a packed schedule.
Motsepe said the change, along with the introduction of the Nations League, was made “to make sure the football calendar worldwide is more in harmony”.
“Of course 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 added.
“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 said the new annual Nations League would start off by being regionalised, with 16 teams each in the east, west and central-southern zones, and six in the northern zone
Matches will be played in September and October, with the top teams from each zone coming together for the finals to take place in one location in November.
Meanwhile he said prize money for the Cup of Nations in Morocco would be increased so that the winners receive $10 million, up from seven million dollars for the winners in Ivory Coast in 2024.
Additional reports from AFP
