NAIROBI, Kenya, September 18, 2026 – Confederation of Africa Football (Caf) boss Patrice Motsepe admits preparations for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are behind schedule.

The South African says there are certain areas that are lagging behind albeit he remains optimistic they will be completed in time for the continental showpiece.

“We’re going to work together and those areas where we are falling behind we’ll correct them, we’ll fix them. I am even more confident after the extensive report I’ve received this morning (Thursday) and the reports I continue to receive on an ongoing basis. We’re going to work together and there’s some areas where we need to accelerate our progress and there are some areas where as I said we are falling behind,” Motsepe said.

The snail’s pace in the preparations notwithstanding, the supremo insists that East Africa will host the 2027 Afcon — a first for the region in the history of the elite competition.

“I want to emphasize that from a CAF perspective and for me personally as the president of CAF there is no plan B, there is no plan C. We are going to work very hard in Tanzania…I’ll take a similar message to Kenya and later give the same message to Uganda,” he said.

He also weighed in on the debate of the venue for the opening match of Afcon, noting that both Tanzania and Kenya have expressed interest in hosting the match.

“I am absolutely confident that when I come back in January next year to do the final assessment and after January next year when I come back to Tanzania it will be for the start, for the commencement. When I said start I don’t mean that necessarily the starting match will be in Tanzania. We’ll still be talking about that,” Motsepe said.

The Caf boss is presently in Kenya where he is assessing progress of the preparations and holding high level meetings with top officials, including the Sports Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya and Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Hussein Mohammed.

The country is constructing a 60,000-seater new facility — Talanta Sports Stadium — which should have been completed by now.

The facility will host Afcon matches in Kenya, alongside Kasarani Stadium.