Burkina Faso’s Traore raises prospect of leading 2032 Africa Cup of Nations bid

Burkina Faso president Ibrahim Traore has said his country could host the 2032 Africa Cup of Nations alone, despite the existing joint bid with Mali and Niger.

The comments are likely to attract attention in Bamako and Niamey, although the three-country proposal submitted to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) remains in place.

Asked by a Burkinabe media outlet whether the project would be too ambitious, Traore rejected the suggestion that hosting the tournament was beyond his country’s reach.

“If we want to, we can. The word ‘impossible’ must be removed from our vocabulary,” he said.

“The three countries are more than enough. If we take it seriously, we can do it. Even Burkina Faso alone, if we decide that we are hosting the Africa Cup of Nations in 2032, we will do it.”

Traore did not withdraw support for the joint bid involving Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Instead, he stressed that Burkina Faso could take on a substantial share of the organisation, or potentially assume an even greater role if the proposal changes before 2032.

The scale of the task remains significant. A modern Africa Cup of Nations requires several stadiums approved for competition, training facilities, sufficient hotel capacity, suitable transport arrangements and strong security guarantees.

Traore believes the six years remaining provide enough time to improve the country’s infrastructure.

“2032 is still a long way off. Today, building a stadium is no longer a myth,” he said, while also referring to a wider programme for developing sports facilities.

Burkina Faso does have previous experience of staging the tournament. It hosted the Africa Cup of Nations in 1998, when the national team, the Etalons, reached the semi-finals under coach Philippe Troussier before finishing fourth.

Their third-place play-off against RD Congo remains one of the competition’s most remarkable matches. Burkina Faso led 4-1, was pegged back to 4-4 and eventually lost on penalties.

The requirements for the 2032 tournament will, however, be considerably greater than they were in 1998. Any future bid will be assessed particularly closely on infrastructure, logistics and security.

CAF president Patrice Motsepe has previously said the joint Burkina Faso-Mali-Niger proposal would have “as much chance as the others”, despite questions surrounding the security situation in the three countries.

For now, the official submission remains a three-nation project. Traore’s remarks underline Burkina Faso’s ambition to show that it is not merely participating in the Alliance of Sahel States bid, but is capable of carrying a major part of the tournament operation itself.