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CAF President Casts Doubt on 2025 AFCON Dates, Contradicting Moroccan Officials
Saturday 10 February 2024, by
The President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice Motsepe, during a press conference held in Abidjan, expressed his reluctance to confirm the precise dates of the next Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) scheduled for 2025, thus contradicting the statements of the President of the FRMF, Fouzi Lekjaa.
He stated that the current focus is mainly on this year’s AFCON edition, which ends this weekend in Côte d’Ivoire. This biennial tournament was exceptionally postponed by six months to avoid the rainy season in West Africa.
The choice of the period to host the next edition of the AFCON in Morocco raises several logistical challenges, he said. Scheduling the tournament in January and February would compromise the possibility of organizing qualification matches due to the dates already allocated by FIFA for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. In addition, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation has announced that the tournament will take place in the summer of 2025, but this period coincides with the FIFA Club World Cup, scheduled for North America with an expanded format, making the situation even more complex.
Despite these difficulties and the competition from other major events, Motsepe expressed confidence that AFCON 2025 will be held as planned. "There are many competing events at the same time, but we are confident that... it will go well during that period," Motsepe said, adding: "We have to take into account the other competing competitions (but) next year’s AFCON will be a huge success and we will make other announcements in due course."