Identifying the right time to stage the Africa Cup of Nations has never been easy for the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and the organisation’s latest decision to have the 2025 Afcon between December and January will ruffle feathers on the continent and elsewhere.
Caf confirmed on Friday that the 2025 Afcon in Morocco will be played between December 21 2025 and January 18 2026 in Morocco.
The draw for the final qualification for the 35th edition, involving 48 nations, will take place in Johannesburg on July 4 with the first and second round of qualifiers set for September 2-10.
Caf president Patrice Motsepe said it was not easy to decide on dates that will please every federation and league and it will now be up to those federations’ leaders to explain to their members how they arrived at the dates chosen.
The 2025 Afcon was initially expected to be held in June and July next year, which is a more suitable time for most clubs in Europe as they are in recess during that period. But Caf couldn’t agree on that slot as it will clash with the staging of the Fifa Club World Cup in the US which is going to have 32 teams for the first time next year.
“In the last few months there has been extensive engagement between Caf, the African Club Association (ACA), European Club Association, Uefa and Fifa and many other stakeholders which has managed to get to where we are right now,” Motsepe said.
“What we have right now is the result of all these conversations with all these different structures. The announcement took much longer than expected as there were complex and challenging discussions with various interested parties in light of the extensive international and domestic match calendars.”
It is now up to the chairman of ACA, Hersi Ally Said of Tanzania, to explain to African leagues and clubs how Caf came to its decision. December is usually a busy time for African football as some leagues conclude their programmes during this time.
But the biggest worry about the availability of top players selected by their nations for Afcon 2025 will come from big clubs in Europe as they have many league fixtures during December and January.
Caf also announced that the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) will be held in July 2025 in Morocco as they could not agree on alternative dates because the 2024 Olympics start in Paris next month and the 2023 Afcon was staged in Ivory Coast early this year.
Banyana Banyana, the reigning African champions, will be hoping to defend their trophy in Morocco next year after winning it for the first time in the same country in 2022.
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