The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has unveiled plans to expand the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) to 28 teams.
Patrice Motsepe, the CAF president, made the announcement on Friday during the confederation’s executive committee press conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
AFCON currently features 24 teams. The proposed expansion would allow four additional countries to qualify for each edition of the tournament.
“I had said in Morocco that CAF’s objective is to have AFCON or the equivalent of AFCON every year. Not every two years. And AFCON, as we know it, we want to increase it to 28 countries. As we said, that will take place once every four years,” Motsepe said.
However, the CAF president did not specify when the changes would come into effect. The next edition of AFCON is scheduled for 2027 and will be co-hosted by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.
In December 2025, CAF announced that AFCON would be held every four years beginning in 2028 — a shift from the traditional biennial format that has been in place since the competition began.
The confederation also disclosed plans to launch the African Nations League in 2029.
The South African added that while AFCON accounts for the bulk of CAF’s revenue, the proposed Nations League would introduce a new income stream and strengthen the organisation’s financial base.