AFCON 2027 (Q): Paulo Duarte hits out at CAF
Three weeks before the start of the 2027 AFCON qualifiers, Guinea’s coach, Paulo Duarte, raised his voice against the schedule set by the Confederation of African Football. His observation: a format that creates inequalities between teams and a calendar considered dangerous for the players’ health.
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The Syli National will compete in Group D alongside South Africa, Kenya, and Eritrea. Guinea will begin its campaign on September 26, 2026 against the Bafana Bafana, before hosting Kenya on October 1 at the September 28 Stadium in Conakry.
A format considered unfair
Paulo Duarte’s first grievance: Kenya, already automatically qualified as host country, thereby reduces the number of available spots for the other nations in the group.
“In this qualification, there are nine teams that don't have the same opportunities as the others to qualify. It was a bad decision by CAF that penalizes Guinea, South Africa, Eswatini, and all the other teams in these groups,” he lamented in an interview with Guinéenews.
According to the Portuguese coach, who had nevertheless received an offer from Angola last February, the presence of a host country in some pools creates sporting injustice for the other groups.
A physically demanding schedule
Duarte also strongly criticized the pace imposed on players by the match schedule. “Why does CAF want to physically destroy the players by making them play a match on the 25th, then another on the 30th or the 1st, requiring teams to travel ten, fifteen, or twenty hours?” he wondered in this interview.
According to him, the fourteen to fifteen-day international window would have allowed for greater spacing between the two official matches. He points in particular to the lack of recovery time, the late arrivals of internationals playing in Europe, and the impossibility of organizing real training sessions between two trips.
The trip to South Africa, a source of concern
Moreover, Guinea will face one of the continent's longest journeys for its first match. “We drew the most distant opponent possible: South Africa, at the other end of the continent from Guinea,” Paulo Duarte reminded.
To limit the fatigue accumulated before hosting Kenya, the coach plans for an immediate return to Conakry after the match in South Africa, a quick turnaround which, in his view, illustrates the limits of a schedule he considers incomprehensible.