DAZN has acquired rights in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, its qualifying competition and the 2026/27 CAF Champions League, bringing the competitions into its own rights portfolio across the three markets. DAZN says all 52 AFCON matches and the CAF Champions League will be shown exclusively on its service, while its coverage of the AFCON qualifiers will be available free.
DAZN takes over from SportDigital for AFCON in DACH
The arrangement changes how AFCON reaches viewers on DAZN in the German-speaking markets. For the 2025 tournament, CAF named SportDigital as its broadcast partner for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Sportdigital FUSSBALL is itself distributed through DAZN, so AFCON was already available to DAZN customers through the third-party channel.
For the 2027 edition, DAZN is instead announcing the CAF package as a rights acquisition of its own. The agreement covers Germany, Austria and Switzerland and adds both national-team and club competitions to DAZN's existing football portfolio.
AFCON 2027 runs from June 19 to July 17
DAZN will carry all 52 matches of AFCON 2027, which is scheduled to run from June 19 to July 17 in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It will be the first Africa Cup of Nations jointly hosted by three countries.
CAF's current competition material lists a 24-team finals, with the three hosts qualified automatically. Forty-eight national teams are taking part in the group stage of qualifying, which begins on September 24, 2026.
AFCON qualifiers will be free on DAZN
DAZN is separating the qualifying competition from the exclusive positioning of the finals by making its AFCON qualifier coverage free on the platform. The 48 teams have been divided into 12 groups of four, with the campaign spread across FIFA international windows in September and October 2026, November 2026 and March 2027.
The first two teams advance from groups without one of the three co-hosts. In the groups containing Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda, the highest-placed team apart from the automatically qualified host goes through.
CAF Champions League joins the package for 2026/27
The package also includes the 2026/27 CAF Champions League. CAF's calendar has the competition starting with preliminary rounds in September and October before the group stage opens from November 27 to 29. The knockout rounds follow from February, with the final scheduled during May 2027.
Mamelodi Sundowns enter the season as defending champions after beating FAR Rabat 2-1 on aggregate in the 2025/26 final. DAZN has not disclosed the value of its CAF agreement or announced rights beyond the competition cycles included in the September 2026 announcement.