EAC Pamoja Afcon: The Collective Bid that was Executively Received, Approved and Rejected Upon Its Arrival in Cairo, right at the CAF Boardroom Table

The East Africa Pamoja #AFCON2027 bid was successfully launched in Kampala – Uganda, but automatically rejected in Cairo, Egypt, at the seat of Continental football by virtually every CAF official, the investigator Sport can reveal. An official at the committee that reviews and therefore awards the host nation bid, bent critical argument on the issues of stadia and or infrastructure in the East African Region.

FUFA’s Moses Magogo, Hon minister of Sports Peter Ogwang and a select FUFA committee, coupled with Kenya and Tanzania Football Federations’ officials, struggled to convince CAF officials in vain, on the bid along the line that between now and 2027, the host nations will have completed the job of constructing and renovating the already existing infrastructure.

They had travelled to Cairo to physically present, and submit to CAF, their Co-host bid for the final AFCON 2027 tournament. By the bidding timeline as announced on 27^th April 2023, the CAF Executive Committee requires host nations to be ready with every host bid requirement, by the time they come for inspection visits between 1^st June – 15^th July 2023 before their executive decision on 15^th August 2023.

May 23^rd 2023 was the deadline for Member Associations to submit their final bids, including all bidding and hosting documents. These include hosting agreement, host cities agreement, government guarantees, etc, which had to be duly signed by the time EAC Pamoja bid arrived for scrutinizing by CAF committee.

The confirmed and received bid included Algeria, also bidding for the 2025 edition, Egypt, Botswana, whose is also initially a joint bid with Namibia, but pulling out on 19^th April 2022, after the national government failed to approve a budget, and the famous East Africa Community Pamoja bid with Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

One of the conditions given by CAF to approve the bid is the government’s commitment to inject money into the construction and renovation of the infrastructure because no FA has the ability to carry the weight. At it, the Pamoja bid ranked excellent. Governments and Football Associations of the three countries already met and devoted to meeting the CAF requirements.

In late April, Sports Ministers from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania met to find the way forward on how best they can support their bid. Their emphasis had been more on constructing standard modern stadiums and training facilities. However, on the criteria for hosting AFCON, the minimum requirement is that the host should have six stadiums to cater for all the 24 teams that will be part of the tournament.

In addition, CAF has established, one of two stadiums should have two 40,000 capacity, two 20,000-seater stadiums and two with a capacity of 15,000. On 7 April 2023, a decision was taken by CAF that the hosts for the 2025 and 2027 Africa Cup of Nations will be chosen at the same day. Given the fact that the three East African Community neighbors are likely to fail on some of the requirements by the date CAF would be inspecting the infrastructure, mainly the stadiums as read above, the EAC Pamoja bid is an automatic reject and Oh yes… a failed bid.

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Jako David Waluluka: Mr. Jacko David Waluluka is another unique entertainment and general investigative news writer, a field he has diligently covered for over fifteen years. He’s also the Chief Administrator at The Investigator. He can easily be reached via [email protected]