Patrice Motsepe encourages Angola to bid for AFCON 2029

Speaking to the local media after meeting the President of Angola João Lourenco in Luanda on Saturday, Motsepe says the country has all the infrastructure needed to host a successful AFCON.  

It’s been 11 years since a Southern African country last hosted the AFCON tournament in 2013 when it was held in South Africa, and in 2029 it will mark 16 years since this region hosted the continent.

Angola last held this tournament in 2010, and Motsepe says their bid will be considered should they decide to go ahead with it.

"This country has got a proud history of football including some very good infrastructure and of course did a very good job hosting the AFCON many years ago. We've already received about 10 nations that have said they want to put in a proposal to host AFCON or CAN 2029 and that is beautiful because we've just had the most successful CAN in the history of African football," Motsepe said.

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Only South Africa and Angola in the COSAFA region have hosted AFCON in the history of the tournament since 1957.

Botswana and Zambia recently put in a last-minute joint bid for the 2027 edition but lost to the joint bid of PAMOJA nations in East Africa.

Motsepe says these are the exciting times to bid for the AFCON because the tournament has just become a huge money spinner both from sponsorship and broadcast rights revenue perspectives after the recent tournament in Côte d’Ivoire a few months ago.

"Two billion people all over the world were watching the AFCON Côte d’Ivoire or CAN Côte d’Ivoire. 180 nations all over the world were watching CAN Côte d’Ivoire, the greatest number of sponsors, private sector partners, more money went into sponsoring CAN Côte d’Ivoire than ever before and of course all of that money, we give back to the 54 nations in Africa for football development for boys and girls, football academies and also pay the players and play the people who are involved in football. Pay them good salaries.

“To answer your question very specifically I welcome Angola to submit a bid to host CAN 2029. I'm confident that the exco of CAF will look at the Angola proposal in an objective and fair manner like all of the other proposals or bids and that's why I'm encouraging Angola to submit that bid."