DAR ES SALAAM, March 22 -- HELLO everybody! Welcome to the gently unravelling emotional landscape of AFCON 2027 preparations, to be jointly hosted by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

Three nations currently performing the delicate balancing act of smiling confidently while quietly checking whether the ground beneath them is still behaving like ground.

Because confidence, to be fair, has not entirely disappeared. It is still present, still standing, still nodding politely in meetings.

But it now travels with a modest companion: A small, slightly battered suitcase labelled, with admirable honesty, “just in case everything goes sideways.”

And given recent events, that suitcase is not being packed out of paranoia. It is being packe...