The Confederation of African Football (CAF) president, Patrice Motsepe, said the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) were postponed for the benefit of the players.
After a series of back and forths, CAF confirmed on Friday, June 21, that the 2025 AFCON will take place from December 2025 to January 2026 in Morocco.
Initially, it was expected that the tournament would take place between June and July 2025, which would have been the ideal period because major European leagues would be on break then.
However, CAF was left with no choice but to move the start date forward because of the extended version of the FIFA Club World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in the same period.
Like the 2025 AFCON in Morocco, the 2024 WAFCON was postponed from this summer to July 2025 due to the Olympic games in Paris.
Note that nine-time African women’s champions, Nigeria, and Zambia women’s teams, are representing Africa at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Hence, the 2024 WAFCON had to be postponed.
“I am also impressed by the enormous growth of Women’s Football in Africa and I am expecting the CAF WAFCON Morocco 2024 to be immensely successful,” Motsepe told CAFonline.
The announcement of the dates of the CAF 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.”
