{"id":47694,"date":"2026-10-12T09:03:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T07:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/super-eagles-coach-backs-caf-proposal-for-biennial-afcon\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T13:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T11:42:17","slug":"super-eagles-coach-backs-caf-proposal-for-biennial-afcon","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/super-eagles-coach-backs-caf-proposal-for-biennial-afcon\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Eagles coach backs CAF proposal for biennial AFCON"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nigeria national team Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle and fellow African managers have strongly endorsed the Confederation of African Football&#8217;s (CAF) proposal to scrap a four-year cycle and return to holding the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) every two years.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the sidelines of the CAF Strategy Conference on Sal Island in Cape Verde, Chelle described the return to a two-year frequency as essential for the continent&#8217;s football development. He previously led Mali at the 2023 edition before guiding Nigeria at AFCON 2025, emphasised that regular high-level international competition is critical for African teams aiming to build identity, improve tactical execution, and prepare effectively for global tournaments like the FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While CAF President Patrice Motsepe confirmed that executive discussions regarding the competition calendar remain under review, the overwhelming consensus among technical leaders favors maintaining AFCON as a biennial tournament to sustain competitive growth across African football.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15438,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-47694","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"African coaches at CAF summit endorse return to two-year AFCON cycle ","published_date":"2026-10-12 11:03:14","news_description":"African coaches at CAF summit endorse return to two-year AFCON cycle ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47714,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47694\/revisions\/47714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=47694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}