The Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Dr. Patrice Motsepe has exuded confidence in a successful 2027 PAMOJA AFCON, which will be co-hosted jointly by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
Motsepe said this on Friday in a media briefing after assessing ongoing construction works at Kasarani and Talanta stadiums in Nairobi.
“So the world will be coming to Kenya, Africa will be coming to Kenya. It’s also a message of self-belief, a message of confidence in ourselves as Kenyans and as Africans, a moment of pride, a moment of patriotism that the Kenyan national team will be representing the country,” stated Motsepe.
Motsepe, however, expressed dissatisfaction with some of the ongoing works but gave Kenya the benefit of the doubt on getting the renovations at Kasarani Stadium right.
“There’s a huge amount of progress that has been made; it’s visible. There’s a new stadium coming from Kasarani and good progress has been made. There’s also been discussions about specific areas where improvements have to be made. In some cases also where there has to be changes in the plans. Because you’ve got a presidential suite, you’ve got lifts that the heads of state will be using with the VVIP, you can’t have that. You’ve got 700 VVIPs, you’ve got heads of state, so that requires a reconfiguration, a change in the construction,” said Motsepe.
The CAF Boss, who was visiting Kenya after assessing construction works at the Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium, reaffirmed that the tournament shall go on as planned in Kenya.
“So what I want to emphasize is we had a team of 21 people, an expert team, and our standards for AFCON are very high. Our requirements, our preconditions are very high because we are hosting our brothers and sisters from Kenya, from the continent. We want that experience to be a pleasant experience and a world-class experience for our guests, for our spectators, but also the players and the change rooms. Very importantly, the broadcasting delegations; very, very important. There were some proposals that were made concerning how we should make substantial changes and improvements because we need the media to be happy, to be comfortable, to be in a convenient and pleasant environment,” he continued.
He reassured that he would visit the country in January for his last inspection of the AFCON facilities across the three East African host countries.
“When I come in January, it’s got to be 100% because I need the testing of the stadiums.””
The President revealed that each of the three host countries will play its own opening ceremony and match, as was the case in this year’s FIFA World Cup.
“We have three openings because I want something special for all of our three countries.
So we need to test. That’s why I emphasized—in fact, I overemphasized—the chance when there were problems, deficiencies, and failures. We were not ready six months before February,” he stated.
The Sports CS Salim Mvurya, in his address, reaffirmed the Kenyan government’s commitment to deliver the best tournament.
“As a government, we want to say that most of the areas that have been earmarked for improvement and reworking, our teams have done the scoping and we have agreed on a way forward. And this way forward is very, very critical because we have also committed to a new work plan, which will make sure that we conclude everything else by December, so that we can have an opportunity even to do test matches in the various facilities that will be itemized. I want also to be very clear, Mr. President, that as the government of Kenya, through the leadership of our president, Dr. William Samoei Ruto, we know AFCON is going to be a big opportunity because sports is not just entertainment; it is livelihood, it is economic transformation,” said Mvurya.
Motsepe later met with President William Ruto at State House Nairobi, where he expressed his satisfaction with the country’s progress in hosting next year’s AFCON.
