The Confederation of African Football (CAF) will introduce a new qualification process for the 2027 African Cup of Nations to be hosted in East Africa.

Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda will jointly host the continental showpiece after they were awarded the rights, making it the first time three nations will stage the continental showpiece.

It was gathered that a new proposal has been ratified by the CAF executive committee, which will enable all African countries to participate in the qualifiers.

The new idea will eliminate the previously adopted preliminary rounds for previous editions, as more teams will have the chance to qualify for the AFCON.

According to the proposed structure, qualifiers will feature 13 groups consisting of either three or four teams.

Having won the African final of the World Cup playoff, DR Congo will be placed in a group that has three teams, while the qualifiers will begin in March 2026, per the BBC.

Winners of each group will pick an automatic ticket to the tournament along with the three best runners-up across all the groups.

The remaining ten runners-up will head to a play-off round, and then five teams will emerge to complete the list of 24 teams competing for the AFCON title in 2027.

According to CAF, the draw for the 2027 AFCON qualifiers will take place on December 19.

CAF is changing the AFCON 2027 qualification criteria as per the documents seen below. There will be 13 groups with the winners of the groups going through while the 3 best runners follow them. The remaining 10 runners-up play a 2-legged play-off with the winners going through. pic.twitter.com/VTjiQEfnRF

— Sports Office Africa (@SportsOffice254) November 17, 2025