Nigeria and Benin have turned their attention to winning the hosting rights for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations after dropping their bid for the 2025 edition.
Nigeria and Benin’s joint-bid faces competition from West African rivals Senegal, Botswana, Egypt and combined East African bid from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Algeria were in contention for the 2027 hosting rights until Tuesday morning when they withdrew their bid.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is expected to announce the host countries for the AFCON in 2025 and 2027 after the voting session of its Executive Committee that will take place in Cairo on Wednesday.
The AFCON 2025 rights was thrown open in 2022 after original host country, Guinea failed to intensify preparations to host the continent as a result of the political instability in the West African country after a military coup.
The last time Nigeria hosted the Africa Cup of Nations was in 2000 and it was as a co-host with Ghana and their first AFCON tournament on home soil was in 1980 which they won.
Later tonight, Nigeria and Benin’s joint-bid will be presented to CAF’s Executive Committee with a delegation led by Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh.
The presentation will be made by Mainasara Illo (chief organiser of Nigeria’s All-Africa Games in 2003 and Nigeria’s FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2009) will be centred on how the two countries’ bid help promote commerce, security, economic development and improvement in the West African region.
