Morocco’s AFCON 2025 Host Claim Sparks Controversy with Algeria

"The city of Fez is equipped with a sports complex with a capacity of 40,000 spectators that will host the matches of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations when our country is designated as the host country and will be among the candidate cities to host the 2030 World Cup," Fouzi Lekjaa said during an intervention in parliament this week. A "rather surprising" statement that calls into question the credibility of CAF, comments TSA Algérie, recalling that the choice of the host country for an AFCON is made by vote.

For Hafid Derradji, an Algerian journalist for beIN SPORTS, this statement by the president of the FRMF is "a lack of respect" towards CAF and the other candidates to host the 2025 AFCON, which are Algeria, Zambia, Benin and Nigeria (joint bid). "We already knew for months that Morocco was going to host the 2025 AFCON, but for the first time in the history of African football, a federation president announces that his country is going to host an event before the CAF decision," he told the Win Win media.

Fouzi Lekjaa’s announcement could also be seen as a way of putting pressure on the presidents of African federations who are to participate in the vote to designate the host country of the 2025 AFCON, analyzes the beIN SPORTS journalist, specifying that the Algerian Football Federation is considering denouncing Morocco before CAF and FIFA, and withdrawing its candidacy. "In this case, CAF and the FRMF would be in a delicate situation due to the non-respect of the competition with this announcement," he argues.