* The announcement of the dates took much longer than expected, as there were complex and at times challenging discussions
* With various interested parties, in the light of the extensive international and domestic match calendars
* The qualifying campaign for the AFCON Morocco 2025 are scheduled to kick-off September 2024
* Whose draw will be held on Thursday, July 4 in Johannesburg, South Africa
By Duncan Mlanjira
The Confederation of African Football CAF executive committee has announced yesterday, June 21 that the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Morocco 2025 will be played from December 21, 2025 to January 18, 2026 — as opposed to the usual period of January-February.
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A press release from CAF published on CAFonline, also announced the dates of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) which is growing exponentially and will also be hosted in Morocco.
The dates of the CAF WAFCON will be from July 5-26 and in the statement, CAF Patrice Motsepe is quoted as saying the announcement of the dates of the AFCON Morocco 2025 took much longer than expected, as there were complex and at times challenging discussions with various interested parties, in the light of the extensive international and domestic match calendars.
“CAF is committed to protecting and advancing the interests of African players, playing in football clubs in Europe and worldwide,” he is quoted as saying. “CAF is also committed to building mutually beneficial relationships with the ECA, UEFA, other Football Confederations and FIFA.
“We will continue to make significant progress in developing and ensuring that African football is globally competitive and amongst the best in the World.”
Patrice Motsepe (left)
On his part, Morocco Football Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa, pledged that Africa’s most popular and competitive football competition will be the best event to honour Africa and the hosts will make available the best conditions to host the rest of Africa and the World.
It will be a roller coaster run from this year till November during the AFCON qualifiers as they will be intensely played alongside the FIFA World Cup 2026™, which after Matchday 4, remains with six more games to be played in 2025 (March, September, October and November).
Meanwhile, the qualifying campaign for the AFCON Morocco 2025 are scheduled to kick-off September 2024, whose draw will be held on Thursday, July 4 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The AFCON Morocco 2025, will be played through this year as well as alongside the FIFA World Cup 2026™ qualifiers but the finals will be held in 2026.
The year naming of the editions got changed due to disruptions caused by the CoVID-19 — thus the 2020 was played in 2021 in Cameroon and the 2023 in 2024 in Côte d’Ivoire.
For the Flames, their next six games for the Group H of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ are three at home — against Equatorial Guinea and fellow COSAFA member, Namibia Liberia — with the other three away against São Tomé e Principe, Tunisia and Namibia.
First will be against Namibia followed by away to Tunisia both in March 2025 before meeting Namibia again away and Liberia at home — both in September.
Then in October, the Flames will host Equatorial Guinea before traveling to confront São Tomé e Principe, whom they beat 3-1 at Bingu National Stadium in this June’s Matchday 3 before losing 0-1 in Matchday 4 away to Equatoguineans.
Having won 1-0 in their opening campaign away to Liberia, losing 0-1 at home against Tunisia, the Flames are 4th in Group H in the race for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ to be hosted jointly by the United States of America, Mexico and Canada.
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The 23rd edition finals will have 48 participating countries instead of the conventional 32 giving an advantage for Africa to field more teams and the top team from each of the nine groups after Match Day 10 shall earn an automatic qualification.
The four best second-placed and top ranked teams from all nine groups will engage in a continental playoff, determining a single victor who will then proceed to a second and final playoff.
This final stage will comprise six teams from various confederations, with the top two emerging as qualified participants, ultimately making up the 48 competing teams.
As for the AFCON Morocco 2025, the qualifiers shall determine the first 24-nations finals on the heels of the thrills and successes of the Côte d’Ivoire 2023 where the host nation defied all odds to claim their third title.
On the cards for the draw of the journey towards the 35th edition of the showpiece continental sporting event will be 48 nations — including the four winners from the preliminary round (Chad, eSwatini, Liberia and South Sudan) — to be drawn into 12 groups of four teams each to determine top two for the finals.
AFCON 2023 champions Côte d’Ivoire
Headlining the confirmed nations for the draw are reigning African champions Côte d’Ivoire joined by usual favorites ahead of the finals such as North Africans Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria; West African Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.
From the Council of Confederation of Southern Africa Football Association (COSAFA) are Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Angola, eSwatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Madagascar.
The others include Benin, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé e Principe, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda.
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