CAF’s move to a 28-team format reshapes the road to 2027, and DMV’s African football communities are already talking about it
CAF confirmed AFCON 2027 28 teams this week. The Confederation of African Football will expand the Africa Cup of Nations from 24 to 28 teams, starting with the 2027 tournament. It is the largest field in the competition’s history. CAF President Patrice Motsepe announced the change on Wednesday. He said it gives more national teams a shot at the continent’s biggest stage.
The 2027 edition carries a new name: TotalEnergies CAF AFCON PAMOJA 2027. It runs from June 19 to July 17, 2027. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will host jointly. Three countries have never co-hosted the tournament before. Host nations get automatic qualification. That matters most for Kenya’s Harambee Stars, a team that has rarely reached the tournament on merit alone.
Why East Africa has waited half a century for this
The drought is not an accident of scheduling. Ethiopia hosted AFCON twice, in 1962 and again in 1976, and no CECAFA-region country has hosted since. That makes the 2027 tournament the first in East Africa in exactly 50 years, according to Flashscore’s reporting on the confirmed dates. Kenya came close twice before. The country won hosting rights for 1996 but withdrew amid a tense political transition, and it won them again for 2018 before opting out a second time. Uganda and Tanzania had never even bid to host alone.
This time, the three countries bid together under the name “Pamoja,” a Swahili word meaning “together.” They already had a dress rehearsal. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda co-hosted the 2024 African Nations Championship in February 2025, a tournament restricted to domestically based players. Morocco beat Madagascar 3-2 in that final. The experience gave organizers a live test of stadiums and logistics ahead of the bigger stage to come.
Planned venues reflect that spread. Uganda expects to use Mandela National Stadium in Kira Municipality and a newly upgraded Hoima City Stadium. Kenya is looking at Nairobi, Eldoret and Kakamega. Tanzania is expected to spread matches across Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Dodoma and Zanzibar. The 2027 tournament also lands on AFCON’s 70th anniversary and will be the last edition held in an odd-numbered year, since CAF plans to shift the competition to a four-year cycle starting in 2028.
AFCON 2027 28 teams: how the new format works
CAF splits the 28 qualified teams into seven groups of four. Two teams from each group advance to the Round of 16. That accounts for 14 spots. The two best third-place finishers fill the final two spots. Sixteen teams reach the knockout stage. CAF used this same Round of 16 format when the tournament grew from 16 to 24 teams in 2019. Now it simply casts a wider net to get there.
CAF also locked in the qualifying calendar. Three FIFA windows will decide who qualifies. The first runs September 21 to October 6, 2026. The second follows November 9 to 17, 2026. The third closes March 22 to 30, 2027. Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt and Morocco are among the countries DMV communities follow most closely. All four start their campaigns this fall, more than a year before the tournament kicks off.
Why this is a new storyline for DMV fans
AfroDMV tracked how diaspora communities organized around African teams during this summer’s World Cup. AFCON qualifying works differently. It plays out across three separate windows over more than a year, not one summer tournament.
The stakes are personal here in a way they are not everywhere else. Maryland and Virginia rank among the top two states in the country for Ethiopian population, according to Census Bureau data compiled by World Population Review, and the District of Columbia holds the highest concentration of Ethiopian residents by share of population of any jurisdiction in the country. The Washington area has been called the largest Ethiopian community outside Africa, with population estimates ranging widely depending on the source, from federal counts in the tens of thousands to community estimates well above 100,000. Ethiopia is not among the three 2027 hosts, but its long AFCON history, and its stalled bid to host the 2029 edition, means DMV’s Ethiopian community will be watching this East African moment closely regardless.
The same community energy behind 10 things you did not know about DMV’s Nigerian diaspora now has a much longer runway to plan around. Qualifying windows start this fall. The tournament itself is still a year away.
FAQ
When does AFCON 2027 qualifying start?
The first qualifying window runs September 21 to October 6, 2026. Two more windows follow in November 2026 and March 2027.
Why does the AFCON 2027 28 teams expansion matter?
It adds four more spots than the 24-team format used since 2019. That gives emerging football nations a better chance to qualify. Established contenders like Nigeria, Egypt, Senegal and Morocco are not expected to lose ground.
Where is AFCON 2027 being played, and why does it matter for East Africa?
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are co-hosting, running June 19 to July 17, 2027. It is the first AFCON hosted in the CECAFA region since Ethiopia’s 1976 tournament, ending a 50-year gap.frica in more than 50 years.