The Africa Cup of Nations is about to get bigger. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has confirmed that the tournament will expand from 24 to 28 teams starting with the 2027 edition, the largest field in the competition’s nearly seven-decade history. CAF President Patrice Motsepe announced the decision at a press conference in Johannesburg, describing it as a deliberate step to widen participation across the continent’s 54 member federations.
The expanded format will debut at a historic moment for the tournament: the 2027 AFCON, running from June 19 to July 17, will be jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda under their “Pamoja” bid, marking the first time the finals have ever been staged in East Africa, and the first time three countries have shared hosting duties.
Under the proposed structure, the 28 qualified nations would be split into seven groups of four, up from six groups of four in the current 24-team format. Each side would still play three group-stage matches, and the top two finishers in every group — 14 teams altogether would advance automatically to the Round of 16. The remaining two knockout places would go to the two best third-placed teams across all seven groups, rounding out the familiar 16-team knockout bracket introduced when CAF last expanded the tournament, from 16 to 24 teams, ahead of the 2019 finals in Egypt.
That is a change from the current system, in which four best-placed third-place teams, not two, join the group winners and runners-up in the knockout stage. CAF has not yet published the full, formal competition regulations, so the exact qualifying and seeding mechanics are still expected to be ironed out in the coming months — a timeline that is beginning to feel tight, given that qualifiers for the 2027 tournament are due to start in September.
Motsepe framed the expansion as part of a broader push to raise the commercial value and global visibility of African football, arguing that more federations competing on the continent’s biggest stage will translate into more matches, richer broadcast content and a stronger platform for players from countries that have historically struggled to reach the finals. CAF has also pointed to the 2019 expansion, from 16 to 24 teams, as a template success story, a change that is widely credited with giving more nations meaningful continental exposure without derailing the tournament’s competitiveness.
Not everyone is convinced the math works the same way twice. Some football analysts and commentators have questioned whether four additional teams might thin out the overall quality of the group stage, arguing that a growing federation base does not always translate into a deeper pool of finals-ready national teams. It is a familiar argument: the tournament has expanded repeatedly since its three-nation debut in 1957, growing to eight teams, then 12, then 16, and each expansion has arrived with similar concerns about diluting the standard of play.
For the three East African co-hosts, the timing adds real pressure. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda must now plan stadiums, training facilities, transport and security arrangements for four more national delegations than originally budgeted for, all while coordinating logistics across three separate countries for the first time in AFCON’s history. Supporters and national federations across the continent will be watching closely for CAF’s final word on format, seeding and qualification pathways in the months ahead.
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