Arusha to have new Stadium as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania host the African Cup of Nations 2027

Arusha, the Northern safari capital of Tanzania is now setting stage to become one of the sporting venues for the 2027 African Cup of Nations, a continental soccer tourney.

This follows the decision of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to award the rights to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, three of the East African Community Member states.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan has directed that a new stadium should be erected in both the Arusha and Dodoma cities before the continental soccer tourney wagon rides into the country in four years’ time.

Other than the old and cracking Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium, Arusha City essentially does not have a proper sporting arena as of yet. Dodoma is working on one while Nairobi, Kampala and Dar-es-salaam seem okay in this field.

With Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania now chosen, it means the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) will for the first time get to stage the tournament since the Ethiopian bid back in 1976.

Nigeria which also bid to co-host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations with Benin Republic has had its proposal thwarted by CAF.

The 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (also known as 2027 AFCON or CAN 2027) organized by CAF, is going to be the 36^th installment of the now bicentennial African international association football tournament.

 During the CAF meeting of April 2023, held in Arusha, Tanzania, it was decided that the hosts for the 2025 and 2027 Africa Cup of Nations will be announced on the same day.

The CAF conference also proclaimed that there will be four bids for the 2027 edition African Cup of Nations’ tourney.

Morocco, on the other hand, will be hosting the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

As it happens, Morocco replaces Guinea, which was stripped of the rights to host the tournament in October 2022.

And that was because of concerns rising regarding the country’s sports infrastructure and other facilities, including accommodation.

An official statement from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said the joint East African bid from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania has eventually won the rights to hold the 2027 regional soccer tournament.

Tanzania’s Southern Neighbor, Zambia together with the joint Nigeria-Benin bid, was also in the running for the AFCON 2025.

However they all agreed to withdraw their joint bid in order to allow Morocco to prove its worth in hosting the African Cup of Nations in 2025.

In fact many African countries believe that if all goes well in Casablanca, then there is more hope and chances that the continent will eventually also get to host the FIFA World Cup events in future.

Morocco has been bidding to host the World Cup for over six times now with the latest proposal gearing for the 2030 FIFA event.

The North African country joined forces with Spain and Portugal in a mutual bid for 2030.

The trio is set to replace Ukraine, a country which has been forced to pull out of the World Cup 2030 hosting bid due to the ongoing war with Russia.