Izuchukwu OkosiAccording to information from Wikipedia, the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco has been confirmed as holding between 23 July and 21 August 2025 after recent uncertainty from the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The tournament is expected to return to the summer next year after the 2023 edition was recently held in January and February 2024 with hosts Cote d’Ivoire beating Nigeria 2-1 in the final to emerge as champions.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelBoth nations have thus won the title three times apiece.
“There are dates,” Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe said during the recently concluded Afcon.
“I was with the president of FIFA yesterday and various others,” Motsepe added.
“There’s a lot of competing events at the same time, but we are confident that we will identify (that) it is indeed going to be around that time.
“I don’t want to make announcements because there’s a degree of comfort in terms of what the date looks like, but we’ve got to accommodate various other competing competitions.”
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire had to be staged early this year due to weather conditions but with the tournament conflicting with other major football events and top leagues, Morocco will host the rest of the continent in the summer of next year.
However the expanded FIFA Club World Cup will be holding in the USA between 15 June and 13 July 2025.
The last edition of the tournament to be played with the old format took place in Saudi Arabia in December 2023.
Africa has four entries in the FIFA club event, and already qualified are the past two continental champions Al Ahly of Egypt and Wydad Casablanca from 2025 AFCON host Morocco. The other two places will be confirmed after the next African Champions League final in May.
The Federation of International Football Professionals (FIFPRO) the global association protecting the interests of footballers released a statement when the 2025 dates were confirmed.
“The extreme mental and physical pressures at the pinnacle of the game is the principal concern of players with multiple club and national team competitions, leading to exhaustion, physical injuries, mental health issues, diminished performance, and risks to career longevity.
“They have repeatedly voiced concerns about mounting workload to their national player unions,” the statement read in part.
What has been left unanswered is the rest period that African players will be entitled to after their FIFA Club World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations exertions next year with the domestic leagues in most parts of Europe expected to begin in August 2025.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
Follow Us