Ethiopia’s Africa Cup of Nations dream runs into a race against time

Ethiopia has formally submitted its bid to host the 2028 Africa Cup of Nations, but the country faces a major infrastructure challenge: Bahir Dar Stadium is currently the only ground in the country approved by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The prospect of one of the historic centres of African football hosting the tournament again has obvious appeal. Ethiopia has a population of about 135 million, making it Africa’s second-most populous country behind Nigeria, while its economy is growing rapidly.

Its political and historical significance is also considerable. Addis Ababa is home to the headquarters of the African Union, and Ethiopia retains a unique symbolic place on the continent because of its ancient history and resistance to European colonial rule, particularly Italian occupation.

Football is hugely popular across the country. Ethiopia was one of the three participants at the first Africa Cup of Nations in 1957, alongside Egypt and Sudan, and is one of the founding members of CAF.

The national team won the 1962 Africa Cup of Nations on home soil and Ethiopia hosted the competition twice more, in 1968 and 1976.

Since then, however, the country’s football has suffered a dramatic decline. Ethiopia returned to the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013 after a 31-year absence and appeared again in 2021, but failed to progress beyond the group stage on either occasion.

The national team are currently ranked 144th in the world and 44th in Africa, a poor return considering the country’s population and footballing potential.

The Walyas can nevertheless be entertaining to watch. Ethiopia have shown a willingness to play on the ground, possess some technical quality and can threaten on the counter-attack. At the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, they pushed hosts Cameroon before losing 4-1.

Their difficulties include a physical and tactical gap between domestic development and the level of Africa’s leading nations. Very few Ethiopian players move abroad to experience a different style of football, with the overwhelming majority of internationals remaining in the domestic league.

The country has occasionally produced players capable of performing at a high level on the continent, including former captain Getaneh Kebede, but such examples have been too rare.

Hosting the Africa Cup of Nations could be viewed as a way to accelerate Ethiopia’s football development. Yet with less than two years before the proposed tournament, the scale of the work is substantial.

Bahir Dar Stadium, a venue with a capacity of about 52,000 in the north of the country, is currently Ethiopia’s only stadium that meets CAF requirements. That is why the national team have had to play some recent “a domicile” fixtures abroad, including in Morocco and Rwanda.

Playing in Ethiopia can provide a significant home advantage. Cote d’Ivoire discovered that in 2019, when they lost 2-1 to Ethiopia in Bahir Dar in front of a passionate crowd at an altitude of more than 1,800 metres.

A second major venue is under construction in Addis Ababa. The Adey Abeba International Stadium is expected to hold about 62,000 spectators, with completion scheduled for 2027.

That would represent significant progress, but two stadiums would still be far from enough for a 24-team Africa Cup of Nations. The tournament requires several venues capable of hosting matches while also accommodating training sessions, teams, media and supporters.

Three other proposed stadiums would need extensive work before they could meet international standards. The challenge also extends well beyond seating capacity.

Ethiopia would need compliant training pitches, hotels, medical facilities, media infrastructure, dependable transport links between cities and the logistical capacity to handle several hundred thousand visitors.

The country’s vast size makes that more complicated. Addis Ababa has undergone extensive modernisation and offers high-end hotels and infrastructure, but the differences between the capital and some other regions remain significant.

Security could prove just as important as the stadium programme. The Tigray conflict caused several hundred thousand deaths between 2020 and 2022, and its consequences are still being felt.

At the beginning of August, fresh fighting broke out in western Tigray between federal forces and fighters linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Addis Ababa remains relatively safe, but an Africa Cup of Nations cannot be organised solely around the capital. As with the Alliance of Sahel States’ bid for the 2032 edition, CAF would have to assess Ethiopia’s overall stability and its ability to guarantee safe travel for teams and supporters.

Ethiopia has a genuine historical case to make. A country of such importance, with such a strong football culture and a place among CAF’s pioneers, deserves to host the tournament again one day.

Hosting the competition could also act as a catalyst for stadium redevelopment, stronger academies, a more professional domestic league and renewed interest in the Walyas.

For 2028, though, the timetable is extremely tight. Ethiopia is competing in particular with the joint bid from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, which can already point to a larger base of existing infrastructure.

To persuade CAF, Ethiopia must now turn its ambition into completed stadiums and a credible tournament plan.