AFCON 2027: East Africa is hosting, not applying for permission

TANZANIA: SOME people wake up every morning with one important assignment: to locate African sunshine and rush there carrying a bucket of darkness.

Give them good news, and they immediately ask who will print the funeral programme.

Tell them East Africa will host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations and they look at you as though somebody has served pilau without meat, kachumbari or even an apology.

So, when Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda were awarded AFCON 2027 under the beautiful banner of Pamoja, the usual “Africa cannot do it” committee reported for duty early.

They signed the attendance register, adjusted the microphone and began clearing their throats. East Africa? Hosting AFCON? Three countries? One tournament? To them, this sounded less like football and more like three goats applying to fly an aeroplane.

Ohhhhh… the stadiums are not ready. The airports are not ready. The roads are not ready. The hotels are not ready. Apparently, even readiness itself is still waiting for clearance.

Perhaps even the spoons in the VIP lounges are still standing outside, holding temporary passes and pleading with security guards to let them in.

Apparently, before East Africa can host an African football tournament, it must first become Switzerland with plantain: spotless roads, silent trains, shiny airports and supporters who apologise to goalkeepers before celebrating.

Among the loudest drummers of this tune was this Ivorian journalist Mamadou Gaye, who questioned whether Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda had sufficient infrastructure.

He also suggested that travelling by road from one host country to another could take two days, although the claim appeared to lean rather heavily on hearsay.

Has he travelled through the region himself? That is a fair question, and one best answered before the prophecy is printed in bold.

At that point, one had to wonder whether he imagined football teams would travel between Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Kampala on bicycles, escorted by goats and stopping every few kilometres for roasted maize, bus-stand gossip and directions from a boda boda rider who says, “Go straight,” while pointing sideways.

Then came the question with extra salt and chilli: would CAF lower its standards, or eventually take the tournament away from East Africa? Those words travelled faster than a rumour about free food at a government seminar.

Bad news about Africa never has transport problems. It arrives early, gets a window seat, receives extra luggage allowance and still complains that the legroom is insufficient.

Before the neighbourhood rooster had finished clearing its throat, the verdict was circulating: East Africa cannot do it.

At that stage, it was no longer journalism. It was recreational doubt with press accreditation.

Still, we must try to understand Brother Gaye.

He is not merely standing beside the road warning that it might rain; he seems to have bought preference shares in a company called East African Failure Limited.

If we fail, he will wear the hat of a prophet and shout, “I told you!” before the final whistle has finished echoing.

If we succeed, however, his prediction will sour like milk forgotten inside a Kariakoo daladala, or a Kibera Matatu or a Wandegeya bodaboda at midday.

So let us not become too angry with him. Give the brother a comfortable chair, a bottle of cold water, a small fan and perhaps some groundnuts.

Waiting for a collapse that refuses to arrive is exhausting work, particularly when one has already drafted the obituary.

Fortunately, CAF President Patrice Motsepe answered the doubters in Dar es Salaam. His message was simple: there is no Plan B and no Plan C.

In street language, the exit door is locked, the landlord has taken the keys, and the caretaker has gone for lunch. AFCON 2027 is coming to East Africa.

The invitations have been sent. The relatives have been informed. The neighbours have borrowed chairs. Even the family goats, judging by the excitement, have started holding preparatory meetings.

What remains is for us to dress properly, arrive early and ensure that the public-address microphone does not vanish at the last minute like a per diem envelope after the attendance sheet has been signed.

Preparations are not merely coffee-shop stories. Stadiums are being built or upgraded. Training grounds, airports, roads, media facilities and accommodation are receiving attention across the three host countries.

Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda know that hosting Africa’s greatest football spectacle requires more than printing banners, wearing matching shirts and shouting Pamoja until the throat requests sick leave.

The panic about transport also needs tea, snacks and responsible adult supervision.

Surely, no team will be asked to play in Nairobi on Monday, Dar es Salaam on Tuesday and Kampala on Wednesday, travelling around like a politician searching for every available microphone.

Tournament groups and match schedules will be arranged sensibly. Teams will be based close to their venues, while travel between countries will be planned as the competition progresses.

Add flights, dedicated transport, security arrangements and coordinated immigration procedures, and the frightening monster suddenly becomes something quite ordinary: logistics.

Not magic. Not witchcraft. Not even a miracle. Just planning, which sometimes shocks people more than failure. Of course, we must not deceive ourselves.

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East Africa is not paradise, and angels are not stamping passports at our airports. We have all queued until we began recognising the grandchildren of the person ahead of us.

We have hunted for airport Wi-Fi like buried treasure. We have also watched taxi fares develop high blood pressure immediately after the driver spots a foreign visitor touching a suitcase.

Hosting AFCON is serious work. We need clean toilets, clear signs, fair prices, dependable security, working floodlights, trained volunteers, efficient medical services, punctual buses and internet that does not run away the moment a journalist tries to upload the winning goal.

AFCON 2027 is bigger than football. It is an examination in coordination, confidence and imagination, with CAF invigilating and the whole continent peeping through the classroom window.

It offers opportunities for hotels, airlines, food vendors, tour operators, broadcasters, artists, photographers, designers, security personnel, young volunteers and ordinary supporters.

If handled properly, it will leave behind more than Instagram photographs, replica jerseys and aunties asking why the goalkeeper did not simply catch the penalty.

So let Brother Gaye keep his doubts on the table like emergency candles. Questions and scrutiny are welcome; they can help organisers notice weak points before supporters and television cameras arrive.

But scepticism is most useful when it brings evidence, proportion and a willingness to recognise progress, and not when every unfinished task is treated as proof of approaching disaster.

Those carrying Plan B, Plan C and Plan Z may keep them nearby, as sensible people keep umbrellas when clouds gather.

Yet contingency plans should support preparation, not become invitations to celebrate failure before the first whistle.

If East Africa succeeds, as it intends to, even the strongest doubters should be free to revise their forecasts without embarrassment.

Football is full of late equalisers; public opinion deserves the same room to change. East Africa has weaknesses, certainly, but it also has the capacity.

Roads are being improved, stadiums are rising, and preparations are moving. Constructive criticism should keep organisers alert, because confidence without accountability can become another kind of noise.

At the same time, caution should not be promoted to prophecy. Doubt alone has never built a stadium, stamped a passport, trained a volunteer, booked a flight or scored a winning goal; practical suggestions, honest reporting and steady work can help do all of those things.

Our appointment with AFCON 2027 has already been confirmed, and the invitation carries one powerful word: Pamoja. We are not applying for permission. We are preparing to welcome our guests.

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