Patrice Motsepe will not hear of a postponement. Still, during his visit to Tanzania and Kenya on September 19, the president of the Confederation of African Football acknowledged that time was running short. « There isn’t the slightest consideration of a postponement, » he said, adding a warning: « we require those facilities to be world class. » AFCON 2027 is called « Pamoja, » Swahili for « together, » and is set to run from June 19 to July 17, 2027. It will be the first time in fifty-one years that East Africa hosts the tournament, and the first time three countries stage it together.
In Nairobi, the visit mostly showed how much work remains. At Kasarani Stadium, the pitch has yet to be laid. Broadcast cabling is unfinished, the floodlights need work and the hospitality areas must be improved. CAF expected stadiums to be 80 percent complete by August, and Kasarani is not there. The new 60,000-seat Talanta Stadium is moving faster: it was about 90 percent complete in mid-September, with the hybrid pitch being laid. Yet it was supposed to be handed over at the end of 2025. « We need to start using those stadiums in January next year to test them, » Motsepe insisted. A final inspection is planned for then.
Uganda is an even bigger worry. At the February inspection, none of the four stadiums Kampala put forward met CAF’s Category 4 standards. The new Hoima City Stadium fell short on spectator segregation and media facilities. The Mandela National Stadium in Kampala needed major structural work. Since then, Hoima has been chosen to host a qualifying match, which will be its first real test. Tanzania is in the best shape of the three. The Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam is finishing a six-month renovation that includes new seating and upgraded dressing rooms. The challenges there have more to do with transport and accommodation.
The delays keep fuelling talk that the tournament could be moved. As early as April, South Africa was described as a credible fallback thanks to the stadiums it built for the 2010 World Cup. In July, a news site claimed that CAF had quietly sounded out Morocco, which hosted the most recent edition. CAF denied it. On September 19, however, fresh reports mentioned contacts with Rabat and two other countries whose names were not disclosed. Motsepe’s answer has not changed: « There is no Plan B, there is no Plan C. »
For the three governments, more than football is at stake. Nairobi, Dodoma and Kampala have spent heavily on stadiums, roads and hotels, and they are counting on the tournament to bring in tourists and investors. Losing AFCON a few months before kick-off would be a political setback as much as a sporting one. The stadiums will have to be ready for the January tests, when CAF comes back to check on the building sites.