CAF President Confident of Joint Visa Deal for 2027 AFCON
CAF President Confident of Joint Visa Deal for 2027 AFCON
For the first time in its history, the Africa Cup of Nations will be hosted jointly by three countries Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda and CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe believes a key piece of the logistics puzzle is already falling into place: a shared visa arrangement for the tournament.
Hosting a tournament across three separate nations creates a unique challenge that AFCON hasn’t had to solve before. With matches scheduled across all three countries, making it easy for fans, players, officials, and everyone else to move freely between them has become a top logistical priority for organisers.
Motsepe says talks on a joint visa system are already underway, and he’s optimistic the three governments will land on a workable solution well before kickoff.
I am confident that there will be a joint visa arrangement, he said, pointing to the coordination efforts already happening between the relevant authorities.
The idea behind a coordinated visa arrangement is simple make cross-border travel painless for the thousands of supporters expected to follow their teams and attend matches in different host cities throughout the tournament. It would also simplify things significantly for teams, CAF officials, media, and other accredited participants who’ll need to move between countries during the month-long competition.
Given how spread out the fixtures will be across Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, smooth cross-border movement isn’t just a nice-to-have it’s essential to the tournament actually functioning well as a single, coordinated event, even though it spans three separate nations.
Visas are just one piece of a much bigger picture CAF is keeping an eye on. Motsepe and his team are also monitoring progress on stadiums, training facilities, accommodation, and transport infrastructure across all three countries, urging governments, football associations, and local organising committees to keep working closely together as preparations ramp up.
The 2027 AFCON is set to run from June 19 to July 17, giving East Africa its moment to host one of the continent’s biggest sporting spectacles.
As the tournament draws closer, getting the visa arrangement right could end up being one of the quieter but more important factors in making this historic three-nation AFCON a genuinely smooth experience for fans travelling across the region to follow the action.
