Eric Chelle backs return to two-year Africa Cup of Nations cycle

African coaches have welcomed the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) decision to review the Africa Cup of Nations being held every four years, with a possible return to its previous two-year schedule.

Nigeria head coach Eric Chelle described the proposal as an obvious step for the development of African football during an exclusive interview with SABC Sport at the CAF Strategy Conference in Santa Maria, on Sal Island, Cape Verde.

Chelle has coached his home country and Nigeria at two successive AFCON tournaments, in 2023 and 2025. He believes staging the competition every two years would provide African teams with more opportunities to develop and compete at the highest level.

“For me, it’s perfect because when you want to improve, if you have one tournament every four years, it’s difficult,” Chelle said.

“So, now having a tournament every two years is perfect, so we can continue to improve.

“We can grow together, we will play two big tournaments instead of the other nations, they will play one tournament.

“So, this is great for us, we need to play some big international games to improve before the continental World Cup so for me this is the best way.

“If you speak of life and the economy in Africa, it brings something to the country who organises the tournament. I like this idea.”

The proposed change was discussed as African football officials and coaches considered the continent’s progress and future competitiveness.

Chelle was among the African national team coaches who contributed to the main discussions at the conference yesterday. Those talks centred on the performances of the 10 African teams who took part in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

A key issue was identifying what is needed for an African nation to win the global tournament for the first time. Chelle said progress would depend on building a clear football identity and improving every area of the game.

“It was about the question of when will be the next team in Africa who will win the World Cup,” he said.

“We will try to find the solution and like I said when they gave me the mic, I said first of all we have to stay focused on the pitch.

“To try to create an identity, African identity of football and to work on it and every department run the pitch, medical, physical trainer.

“Also because now AI is in football, so we have to continue to improve.”

CAF’s review could therefore lead to the AFCON returning to a two-year cycle, a format African coaches believe would support both sporting development and the economies of host countries.