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The three East African countries face a number of hurdles which they must overcome to win the hosting rights for the continental tournament
Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba this week revealed the conditions set by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to win the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations hosting rights.
Kenya joined her East African neighbours for the joint bid to host the 36th edition of the tournament and Namwamba said the bid, which has to be filed by May 23, requires the three countries to confirm the nine stadiums they will use for the event.
"We have formed something called EAC Pamoja Bid, which will be a tagline. I have already initiated a conversation with my Uganda and Tanzania counterparts, and we are very much on track, and the background work is ongoing in terms of preparing the joint bid,” Namwamba said on Tuesday.
"The bid requires each country to have three stadiums and we have already identified the three and we are already making progress in terms of having them ready ahead of the initial assessment visit.”
The three countries tick the other most boxes but it is on infrastructure, the most important component in the bid, where they face a big hurdle given the timeliness and past history.
Nyayo and Kasarani stadiums are the two facilities that have been earmarked to host the tournament in Kenya with the unfinished Kipchoge Keino Stadium in Eldoret rumoured to be the third facility.
No proper stadiums
Given Nyayo and Kasarani are currently banned from hosting international matches by CAF, and Kipchoge Keino has taken years to complete, observers are wondering whether Kenya will be able to provide the necessary resources to improve the facilities in time or if it will be another still birth.
Memories of the failed bid to host CHAN 2018 tournament are still fresh in the minds of Kenyans and while the charged political temperatures in the country were one of the contributing factors, the country was way behind schedule in getting facilities ready, forcing CAF to strip them of the hosting rights and hand to Morocco.
“We have no stadium, we don’t have a facility to the level required, the rest we have,” Herbert Mwachiro, who served as Chief Executive of Kenya’s failed CHAN 2018 bid told Pulse Sports.
“By now, we should have started constructing stadiums. We don’t put too much money in high level infrastructure. Also, we have to put in place people who know sports.
“Unfortunately, here when we do a stadium, we make it multi-purpose but in all the facilities we do, we need to do one dedicated football stadium. That is purely for football and especially for international matches.”
Expensive affair
Going by his experience with CHAN, Mwachiro believes the government will need to be ready to spend big to support FKF so that the joint bid is a success.
“We need a lot more money. For CHAN, we were looking at the government spending about Ksh13 billion to Ksh15 billion at that time but now for AFCON, it is looking like the figure will even double,” he added.
“It is important that the federation is empowered to get support then it is up to CECAFA and FIFA to ensure that we don’t lose out.”
While the government has expressed its commitment, recent occurrences and sentiments show it could be a bumpy ride even if Tanzania and Uganda are on board. Already, the government is struggling to pay salaries with a proposal to increase taxes to fund its project facing resistance.
It, therefore, leaves many wondering whether there will be additional resources to fund the infrastructure needed for AFCON.
“Before they decide who to award the bid, they will need to see if your government is supporting the bid. If your government is supporting the bid, then you’re good in the first step. Secondly, they will come and inspect all existing facilities,” said Mwachiro.
Strong rivals for the bid
“Hosting rights are either awarded fully or awarded with conditions. For example, if a country like Morocco was bidding, they already have the facilities, so there will be no conditions but for us, we are late with our infrastructure, there will be conditions.”
Tanzania already have one stadium that meets international standards while Uganda, just like Kenya have none. Renovation on the Mandela Stadium, popularly known as Namboole, is way behind schedule and has forced Uganda Cranes to look elsewhere for their home matcha against Algeria in the 2023 AFCON qualifiers in June.
East Africa seem to be in pole position given FIFA president Gianni Infantino expressed his willingness to see the CECAFA region host the tournament but that assurance alone will not be enough if the three countries do not put in place what is required to host the 24-team event.
The EAC Pamoja Bid will be up against Algeria, Egypt and Botswana and the first two will not need to convince much, since they hosted the 2023 CHAN and 2019 AFCON respectively.
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