Last year Uganda and Tanzania made clear their intentions of submitting a joint bid for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.
Last week, news about Kenya’s intentions of submitting a bid alongside other countries in East Africa also came to lo life.
According to the BBC, a statement from the Kenyan government said its cabinet had “sanctioned the revitalisation of football as a key cog of our nation’s social fabric” in a bid “to revive the prospects of Kenyan football”.
“This national effort will encompass the rebuilding of the national men’s team and women’s team,” the statement added.
“Cabinet noted that the joint bid would deploy the power of sports in furthering regional integration.”
The Ugandan State Minister for Sports Peter Ogwang says otherwise: “I am not aware of that.”
“As far as I know, it is Uganda and Tanzania preparing to bid for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, we have not received any information contrary to that,” Ogwang told Football256.
Kenya has tried to host continental competitions before on two occasions but failed to meet the required standards.
The 1996 Africa Cup of Nations was later hosted by South Africa and the 2018 African Nations Championship was hosted by Morocco because several venues were not ready to stage the event.
The Africa Cup of Nations is now a 24 team competition from 16 and an East African bid of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and probably Rwanda will give the region an edge over other candidates.
Botswana and Namibia have already announced a joint bid for the 2027 edition of the Nations Cup.
The next Africa Cup of Nations will be hosted early next year in Ivory Coast, this was sealed last month as Ivory Coast’s government signed a formal hosting agreement with CAF.
CAF is also in search for a host for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, the finals were initially awarded to Guinea, but the West African country was stripped of hosting rights at the start of October because of a lack of suitably advanced infrastructure and facilities.
Guinea had nearly a decade to prepare for the finals, having originally been named as host of the 2023 Nations Cup in 2014, but was then asked to host in 2025 instead.
