Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have joined forces in an attempt to host the 2032 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), with the three West African neighbours preparing a joint bid for the continental tournament.
The football federations of the three countries have begun working together after their expression of interest to stage the competition was accepted by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Football officials from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger met in the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, to begin developing their proposal, bringing together federation presidents, general secretaries and consultants.
The meeting is part of a wider process aimed at producing a joint application that can meet CAF’s requirements while drawing on the resources and infrastructure of the three countries.
The Burkinabe Football Federation said the project was designed to combine the strengths of the three nations.
“This initiative by Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger aims to pool experiences, infrastructure, resources, and expertise to build a strong, credible, coherent, and competitive bid that meets the ambitions of the three nations and the standards of CAF,” reads a post shared by the Burkinabe Football Federation’s communications department.
The discussions are continuing, with further work scheduled for Friday, 14 August.
The proposal would make the three countries the latest African nations to explore a regional approach to hosting the continent’s biggest football tournament.
CAF has opened the bidding process for the 2028, 2032 and 2036 editions of the AFCON, creating an opportunity for countries to present individual or joint proposals.
For Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the 2032 bid is also significant because of their increasingly close political and economic ties.
The three countries, which are governed by military administrations, have established the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) as a framework for closer co-operation.
They formally left the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) last year.
The AES seeks to strengthen collaboration between the three neighbours in areas including security, infrastructure, trade and economic development.
Their football federations are now seeking to extend that co-operation into sport through a joint attempt to stage AFCON.
The Malian Football Federation, known as Femafoot, said the proposal would be based on “solidarity, regional integration and sustainable development of African football”.
Femafoot added that it would work with the relevant authorities to develop a “solid, credible bid” that could offer a different approach to organising the continental competition.
The three countries face the challenge of demonstrating that their combined facilities, transport networks and other tournament infrastructure can satisfy CAF’s requirements.
Their decision to submit a joint proposal means the bid will be assessed on the collective strength of the three nations rather than the resources of any one country.
