Julius Okorie
The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is now to hold across two years beginning in December of one year and ending in January of the following year.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelExecutive members of Confederation of African Football (CAF), arrived at the decision after its Virtual meeting held today.
This implies that the 35th edition of the continental fiesta slated for Morocco will hold from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026.
CAF has been battling with traditional scheduled date of the tournament hitherto January to February, citing congested fixtures as one of the biggest worries.
Available windows are already taken up by the qualifying series for the 2026 World Cup making it impossible for the 24 finalists for the AFCON 2025 to emerge before January 2025.
Morocco proposed the tournament for the summer of 2025, but the inaugural 32-format FIFA Club World Cup of 2025 has also made that impossible.
READ ALSO AFCON 2025 Date Announced Amid FIFA Club World Cup Debate
Other worries of CAF include the timing for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco this year which is yet to get a date and the annual Women’s Champions League which neither has a date nor a host at the moment.
Draw for the 35th AFCON, Morocco 2025 will take place on Thursday, 04 July 2024, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
48 Nations, including the four winners from the preliminary round (Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan) will be drawn into 12 Groups of four teams each to battle it out for places at the finals.
Confirmed Nations for the draw are reigning African champions Cote d’Ivoire who clinched the 34th edition on home soil, Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, DR Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and Ethiopia.
Others include Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The qualifiers are scheduled to kick-off in September 2024.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
