The Confederation of African Football announced the kick‑off and final dates for the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations PAMOJA 2027, confirming the opening match on Saturday, 19 June 2027 and the final on Saturday, 17 July 2027.
The schedule and the full timeline were approved by the FIFA Council at its recent meeting in Vancouver, Canada, CAF said, and the tournament will be co‑hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda — the first AFCON to be staged in three countries.
CAF also released the qualifying plan: a total of 48 teams, including the three co‑hosts, will contest the qualifiers. Those 48 sides will be drawn into 12 groups of four teams each, with the top two teams in every group securing places in the final tournament.
The draw for the qualifiers is set for 19 May 2026, giving national teams and federations a clear date to prepare travel plans, training camps and match calendars ahead of the June 2027 kick‑off.
Context matters: this is the first time the Africa Cup of Nations returns to the East African region since Ethiopia hosted the tournament in 1976, and CAF says PAMOJA 2027 presents a unique opportunity for African football to reach more than 400 million people in East Africa. The confederation pointed to the recent success of TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Morocco 2025 and TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Côte d’Ivoire 2023 as benchmarks for planning and delivery.
Practical questions remain. CAF will announce in due course which of the three co‑hosts will stage the opening match and which will host the final. That decision will shape travel corridors, stadium readiness and security plans across borders, and it comes as federations and local organizers face the task of coordinating a tournament that spans three national jurisdictions.
There is another point of friction built into the format: the three co‑hosts are included among the 48 teams in the qualifiers. With 12 groups and two qualifiers from each, 24 places in the final tournament are at stake through the draw — and how the co‑hosts’ qualification paths are managed will be watched closely by rivals and fans alike.
The calendar is now fixed. The opening match on 19 June 2027 and the final on 17 July 2027 give CAF, the three national associations and regional organizers a clear window to deliver venues, travel and broadcast arrangements. The qualifiers’ draw on 19 May 2026 marks the next concrete milestone on that timeline.
For followers tracking fixtures and planning travel, schedules will begin to populate public platforms and score services — soccer24 and similar outlets will quickly add the official dates and the qualifiers draw to their timetables once CAF finalizes the details.
The most consequential fact is simple and immediate: CAF has set the backbone of the competition. With dates approved by the FIFA Council and a qualifiers draw fixed for May 2026, East Africa has until June 2027 to transform the announcement into stadiums full of fans and the continent’s biggest sporting event since the region last hosted AFCON in 1976.
