African football’s governing body, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) have reached an agreement with world football’s governing body Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) to reschedule 2025 AFCON, MySportDab reports.
The just-concluded 2023 Africa Cup of Nations was originally scheduled to be staged from September 2023 before it was moved to January 2024.
The change in date for the 2023 edition was certainly set to pose logistic difficulties for the organizers of the next edition of the tournament which was expected to kick off in 2025.
If the 2025 edition was to be hosted in January next year, it would have been extremely difficult for organizers to squeeze in the qualifiers and conclude it before the kickoff.
The apparent logistic issues led to discussions within the ranks of CAF officials on the possibility of rescheduling the tournament away from January 2025.
There were projections that the competition should be moved to June or July 2025 but it was certainly set to clash with FIFA’s new extended FIFA Club World Cup format which was set to kick off on June 15, 2025.
Meanwhile, CAF President Patrice Motsepe was mute when he was asked about the date of the next edition of the tournament apparently due to uncertainties on the schedule.
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Now an anonymous CAF official, who is a member of the competition organizing committee, has revealed to AFP that an agreement has been reached between CAF and FIFA for the tournament to be hosted between July 20 to August 16 or 17, 2025.
“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,” the source added.
“The dates currently proposed are July 20-August 16 or 17, 2025
The preliminary qualifiers for the 2025 AFCON is set to kick off next month with 2022 World Cup semifinalists Morocco hosting the tournament.
