CAF has rewritten the product it is selling with less than two weeks of the tender left to run. Anyone bidding for AFCON's commercial rights is now pricing a different calendar, a different set of editions and a different contract length from the one launched in July. Our view: bid, but bid on terms that assume the calendar can move again.

What happened

On 29 October CAF's Executive Committee voted unanimously to return the Africa Cup of Nations to a two-year cycle. On 2 November CAF issued an Amendment Notice to its Commercial Rights Invitation to Tender, first published on 23 July. The tender now covers AFCON 2028, 2031 and 2033, each with its finals and qualifiers, following AFCON PAMOJA 2027 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Bids close on Monday 16 November at 17:00 Cairo time.

The July tender offered global commercial rights, including media, broadcast and sponsorship, for 2028, 2032 and 2036, with a closing date of 24 August. CAF's pitch rests on its own figures for AFCON 2025 in Morocco: more than 3.2 billion TV viewers, 6 billion digital views and 95% growth in commercial revenues. None of these has a published method, and the amendment notice, as published, names no hosts.

What it means

The package is shorter and denser. Three tournaments now fall within six years rather than nine, so a rights holder's cost is spread over fewer seasons of qualifiers and less time to build audiences between finals. That should help cash flow for broadcasters and sponsors who want regular tournament moments; it also concentrates risk if one edition slips.

The calendar is uneven. After 2028 there is no tournament until 2031, then another in 2033. For 2029 and 2030 the property is qualifiers only, alongside a World Cup in Morocco, Spain and Portugal. Any sponsor valuing the package on "a tournament every two years" will overpay for that middle stretch.

Without named hosts, kick-off times, time zones and in-stadium inventory are unknowable. These drive advertising yield for broadcasters and activation cost for sponsors. And CAF moved AFCON to a four-year cycle only last year before reversing it, so calendar risk is now a real pricing input rather than a footnote.

For African broadcasters and federations, the timing matters too. Bidders who were preparing for 2032 and 2036 now have about two weeks to rebuild their models. That favours large, well-resourced groups and agencies over smaller regional broadcasters who might have bid for territorial packages.

What we'd do

  • Price per edition, not per cycle. Broadcasters and agencies should attach a fee to each tournament and to each qualifying window, so that a moved or cancelled edition reduces the fee automatically rather than by negotiation.
  • Write the calendar into the contract. Seek a clause allowing renegotiation or exit if CAF changes the cycle, the number of teams or the tournament window again during the term, and ask for host confirmation dates as conditions.
  • Sponsors: buy the qualifiers properly. In 2029 and 2030 qualifiers are the only AFCON inventory. Insist on clear category exclusivity and named assets across qualifying matches, and on independent audience measurement by market.
  • Federations and leagues: check the clash map now. Domestic leagues and national federations should map the new windows against their own fixtures and sponsor obligations, and raise conflicts with CAF before contracts are signed, not after.

Sources: CAF, "CAF amends the Commercial Rights Invitation to Tender for the lucrative CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2028, 2031 and 2033", via allAfrica, 3 November 2026; CAF, "CAF launches Invitation to Tender for global commercial rights for the lucrative CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2028, 2032 and 2036", 23 July 2026.