CAF announce increase in number of teams for African Cup

CAIRO – 22 July 2017: The General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) adopted, on Friday, new amendments to the CAF competitions, which include increasing the number of national teams to 24 participating teams in the African Cup on Nations.

As confirmed by a statement on association’s website, this change will go into effect with the 2019 African Cup of Nations tournament held in Cameroon.

Another important amendment is the shift in seasons for which the major tournament is held, moving from the winter to the summer. No longer in January and February, the African Cup of Nations will be played in June and July every two years.

This seasonal switch brings a solution to a long-standing problem between the European clubs and CAF as many European clubs would lose many of their African players for a month of the season every other year.

CAF’s assembly also agreed to give Egypt the honor of hosting the 2018 Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations.