THE AFCON 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco will be held in the months of July and August instead of the usual January and February.
The last two editions of the tournament in Cameroon in 2022 and Cote d’Ivoire this year were held in January and February, smack in the middle of the European season, with most of the African stars missing key fixtures for their European clubs.
AFP reported today that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has reached an agreement in principle for the 2025 AFCON to be played in July and August.
The competition is rarely held in the middle of the year because it is rainy in most of Africa at that time of the year, and the last time it was held in that period was in Egypt in 2019.
CAF president Patrice Motsepe had recently refused to confirm the dates of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, with organisers left with little time to stage a qualifying competition were it to be held in January and February.
Yesterday, a member of the competitions committee told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, that there was ‘an agreement in principle between CAF and the Moroccan Football Federation for the Afcon to be held during the summer, more precisely in July and August’.
“This agreement was found with the support of FIFA after talks that began several months ago and which intensified during the last edition which finished this month in Ivory Coast,” AFP quoted the source as saying.
“The dates currently proposed are July 20 to August 16 or 17, 2025.”
The last two Africa Cup of Nations editions were both shifted from the original dates.
The 2021 tournament was played in January and February of 2022, while the most recent edition had initially been planned for June and July last year but was rescheduled over weather concerns after serious flooding hit Cote d’Ivoire in 2022.
