AFCON 2027: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda resolve on joint preparedness

Gerson Msigwa, the Permanent Secretary for the Tanzania’s Ministry of Culture, Arts and Sports said in the Kwale County in Kenya on Wednesday that the development of the write up was part of the deliberations of the inaugural two-day interstate Afcon ’27 stakeholders meeting held in the Kenyan administrative location beginning November 7.

“We have agreed that a write up will be drafted which will be passed to the Permanent Secretaries who will then communicate with their respective ministers for major decisions at the national level to be taken,” Msigwa said.

Msigwa said the write up after being approved by the three governments will be the principal document from which each nation’s implementation scheme will have to follow and achieve under the given timelines and stipulations.

He said the inaugural Kwale interstate stakeholders meeting will be replicated three times in each year beginning next year to keep up with the momentum to deliver Afcon 2027.

He announced that the next such meeting will be held in Uganda while the second will be held in Tanzania and the third for next year will come to Kenya.

He said Caf’s team of assessors is expected to visit the three nations in December 2025 to evaluate the progress.

The Kwale forum was briefed on each nation’s state of preparedness so far and deliberated on issues such how to market the continental show piece, how to brand it, how to ease the flow of people during the two months of the 24-nationl team tournament, the costs involved, safety, security among others.

The three nations will have to each place about $30 million to Caf as a guarantee by the year 2025.

Their joint bid to hold Afcon ’27 was approved by Caf’s executive committee led by with much fanfare in Cairo in Egypt in September.

The East Africa nations beat Egypt, Senegal, Botswana and Algeria – who withdrew from the race two days before the official announcement – to the hosting rights.

The EA nations have automatically qualified for the 2027 edition as the hosts.

Kenya has fronted improvements on Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, and Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi, with the Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret, just over 300kms from the capital, the third option.

Uganda will use Namboole Stadium as the guarantee. It is not clear what second, and third options were provided, or what training facilities have been pledged.

Caf wants match venues of a hosting country or joint hosts should be near an airport, level five hospital and a five-star hotel. The hosts should also have six stadiums to cater to the 24 teams that take part in the tournament.

Cameroon, 2021 Afcon hosts, used six venues: three of them – 60,000, 50,000 and 20,000 seaters – new, in four cities.

The cost of renovating and building new stadiums along with infrastructure such as hotels, airports and roads in Cameroon was estimated at $885m.