Ethiopia has entered the race to host the 2028 Africa Cup of Nations, putting one of African football’s historic homes back into the conversation more than five decades after it last staged the continent’s biggest tournament. The Ethiopian Football Federation says it has submitted its bid with backing from the federal government, moving the country from ambition into an active contest for the hosting rights.
CAF formally opened the bidding process for the 2028, 2032 and 2036 AFCON tournaments in July, inviting its member associations to compete under a framework designed to assess prospective hosts across technical, financial and legal requirements.
For Ethiopia, the bid carries enormous historical weight
The country hosted AFCON in 1962, 1968 and 1976. Its greatest moment came in 1962, when Ethiopia won its only continental title on home soil, beating Egypt 4-2 after extra time in the final in Addis Ababa. CAF has not announced the 2028 host, and the governing body says its bidding framework is intended to provide a transparent process for evaluating and selecting the country or countries that will stage each edition.
That is where the pressure now shifts.
Ethiopia must show that the emotion of bringing AFCON back can be matched by the stadiums, infrastructure, operational capacity and guarantees required to stage a modern 24-team tournament.
The scale of that challenge is very different from the eras in which Ethiopia previously hosted. CAF’s historical venue records show Addis Ababa staged matches across all three Ethiopian editions, while Asmara was also used in 1968 and Dire Dawa in 1976. The country is therefore not bidding without pedigree.
But pedigree alone will not win 2028.
CAF has already confirmed that the 2027 tournament will be staged jointly by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from June 19 to July 17, making the next hosting decision another major test of where African football wants its flagship competition to go.
For Ethiopia, the opportunity is clear: bring AFCON back to a nation that helped shape the tournament’s early history and reconnect a new generation with the country’s most famous football achievement.
The bid is in. Now Ethiopia must prove that AFCON history can become AFCON future.
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