CAF Executive Committee announces dates of CAF TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (“AFCON”) Morocco 2025 and CAF TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations 2024

Published: Friday, 21 June 2024

The Confédération Africaine de Football (“CAF”) Executive Committee (“EXCO”) today announced the dates of Africa’s most popular and competitive football competition, the CAF TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (“AFCON”) which will take place in Morocco.



The dates of the CAF TotalEnergies AFCON Morocco 2025 are:

• Opening Match: Sunday 21 December 2025
• Final Match: Sunday 18 January 2026

The CAF EXCO also announced the dates of the CAF TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (“WAFCON”) which is growing exponentially and will also be hosted in Morocco.



The dates of the CAF TotalEnergies WAFCON Morocco 2024 are:

• Opening Match: Saturday 5 July 2025
• Final Match: Saturday 26 July 2025

The President of CAF Dr Patrice Motsepe said: “I am confident that the CAF TotalEnergies AFCON Morocco 2025 will be extremely successful and will be the best AFCON in the history of this competition. I am also impressed by the enormous growth of Women’s Football in Africa and I am expecting the CAF TotalEnergies WAFCON Morocco 2024 to be immensely successful. The announcement of the dates of the CAF TotalEnergies 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. 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. CAF is grateful to King Mohamed VI of Morocco, the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Football (“FRMF”), its President Fouzi Lekjaa, the Government and people of Morocco for hosting the CAF TotalEnergies AFCON Morocco 2025 and the CAF TotalEnergies WAFCON Morocco 2024.”

The Fédération Royale Marocaine de Football President Mr Fouzi Lekjaa said: “We hope that the CAF TotalEnergies AFCON Morocco 2025 will be the best event to honour Africa and Morocco will make available the best conditions to host the rest of Africa and the World.”



The CAF EXCO also resolved to host the 46th CAF Ordinary General Assembly in Kinshasa, DRC on Thursday 10 October 2024. Decisions were also taken to open bids to host:

• The CAF Women’s Champions League 2024
• The CAF TotalEnergies U17 AFCON
• The CAF TotalEnergies U20 AFCON
• The CAF Awards 2024

CAF has received attractive proposals from the Middle East for hosting the CAF TotalEnergies Super Cup 2024 which will feature Egyptian giants, Al Ahly SC, Winners of the CAF TotalEnergies Champions League and Zamalek SC, Winners of the CAF TotalEnergies Confederation Cup.

naptu2:
CAF secretary general speaking to the BBC.

They have a scheduling nightmare. Some people are pushing them to hold WAFCON out of the FIFA calendar, but he says that's not possible. He says that the best players are based outside of Africa and, with all due respect to the homebased players, they have raised the standard of WAFCON, it's very professional, so they can't do that (have WAFCON with only home based players).

He said that the problem was caused by the fact that AFCON was meant to hold in June last year, but you can't have a football competition in June in Ivory Coast because it's the rain season. So AFCON was held at the time that WAFCON was supposed to hold. So now they need to find a date for WAFCON.

The BBC reporter said that he talked about professionalism, but it doesn't look professional that CAF still doesn't have a date for WAFCON. He spoke to Desiree Ellis and she complained and is angry and disappointed that there is no date. Can he give Desiree Ellis and others that are waiting and disappointed a date?

The secretary general said that there will be an announcement by. . . (I didn't hear well if he said at the end of the week or end of the month). He is assuring everybody that there will be an announcement.

He mentioned possible dates this year (that won't clash with the Olympics), but he said that it could also be next year (he also mentioned possible dates).

The BBC reporter then pointed out that if WAFCON is held next year, then it will clash with the date for AFCON. The secretary general them mentioned possible options.

The BBC reporter summed it up that it's possible that WAFCON might be held next year and AFCON might be held in 2026.

naptu2:
I'm searching for a rebroadcast or text version of that interview, but it's not on the BBC's websites or social media handles. It's only the short clip that was on News Day.

I found out from the CAF secretary-general's Twitter feed that the interview took place 2 days ago and is longer than the clip I heard.

naptu2:
No wonder I couldn't find it. They only just published it right now.

Caf admits Wafcon and Afcon ‘scheduling nightmare’


South Africa (left) won the Women's Nations Cup title in 2022 while Ivory Coast triumphed at the 2023 Nations Cup earlier this year

Ian Williams, Rob Stevens
BBC Sport Africa
Published 18 minutes ago

Organisers of Africa’s premier men’s and women’s international football tournaments have admitted they face a “scheduling nightmare”, but dates for forthcoming editions are closer to being agreed, the BBC has been told.

During a rare in-depth interview Veron Mosengo-Omba, general secretary of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), promised that an announcement on the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) in Morocco would arrive by the end of this month – revealing there is a strong chance it could be switched to next year.

“We are supposed to play this year but we have teams engaged in the Olympics, so we have to find another date,” Mosengo-Omba explained to BBC Sport Africa.

“We are talking with Uefa, because most of the players are playing in Europe, the European Club Association and also with Fifa in order to find [a] suitable date.”

Meanwhile, Mosengo-Omba confirmed that Caf could stage the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), also set to be hosted by Morocco, in early 2026 because of the timing of Fifa’s new 32-team Club World Cup in June and July next year.

“For the men, we need to make sure that the dates that we'll be choosing will be in the interests of the players,” said the Swiss-Congolese, highlighting issues around the workload of the continent’s elite players.

“For this we need to balance different aspects and also discuss with our partners and then we complete [the dates]. Scheduling is a nightmare for everybody.”

Big dilemma for Women’s Nations Cup

Caf’s statutes say both iterations of the Nations Cup should be held once every two years - rather than once every four as is the case with most major championships organised by other confederations.

However, that puts pressure on the African game’s governing body to fit its competitions into an ever-more-crowded international calendar.

Qualifying for the 2024 Wafcon was completed last December, but deciding when to hold the 12-team finals is complicated by the fact that record nine-time winners Nigeria and Zambia will be participating in the Paris Olympics during July and August.

Desiree Ellis, coach of reigning continental champions South Africa, says the crowded schedule is evidence of rapid growth in the women’s game – but she remains critical of Caf’s handling of the situation.

“If it (Wafcon) is postponed or cancelled, it will be a huge, huge disappointment,” the 61-year-old told BBC Sport Africa, pointing out that the 2020 Nations Cup was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, unlike the men’s 2021 tournament which was merely postponed.

“The growth of women's football over the last couple of years has really shot through the roof, especially on the African continent.

“Just communicate whether it's happening or whether it's not happening so we know how to prepare going forward.”

The growth of women’s football in Africa has been made clear this year by two record-breaking transfer fees paid for Zambian players.

In February, forward Rachel Kundananji set a new world record when joining American team Bay FC for $860,000 (£685,000) and the next month Copper Queens skipper Barbra Banda moved to fellow National Women's Soccer League side Orlando Pride for $740,000 (£581,000).

Mosengo-Omba says Caf’s only option for scheduling Wafcon this year would involve playing it outside of an agreed international window – meaning club sides would not be compelled to release their stellar names.

“Do we play Women's Afcon without our best players? This is something that personally I think is not good,” he said.

“We cannot come back by using only local (domestic-based) players. They are good, but the standard would not be the same.”

The alternative is a postponement until 2025.

Player welfare a factor in 2025 Afcon timing


Record 12-time African club champions Al Ahly will play at the expanded Club World Cup next year - but also provide several players for the Egyptian national side

When it comes to the men’s Nations Cup, Caf’s “nightmare” has been caused by global governing body Fifa introducing its expanded Club World Cup.

The 32-team tournament will be played in the United States from 15 June to 13 July next year – dates which potentially could have been earmarked for the 2025 Afcon, with Caf having previously stated its aim of aligning its flagship competition with the European summer window.

“We have a problem that we're still discussing now with the same stakeholders and partners: the European Club Association, Uefa and Fifa,” said Mosengo-Omba.

He denied that Fifa has pressured Caf not to hold Afcon at the same time as the Club World Cup – something that Concacaf, the continental confederation for North and Central America, has decided to do with its Gold Cup competition.

Fifa has been forced to defend its new addition to the football calendar after criticism from unions that players are being “pushed beyond their limits”.

“We can play after the Club World Cup, but is this good for the interests of the players who have played all the season and then they travel to America to play [and then] immediately come to play Afcon?” Mosengo-Omba continued.

“We have to put this in balance before [we] take a decision.”

Despite concerns around heat, the 2019 Nations Cup in Egypt was hosted in June and July that year and the 2021 and 2023 editions were also due to be staged around the same time of year to avoid the regular club versus country clash caused by the tournament’s traditional January-February time slot.

However, the 2021 tournament in Cameroon was pushed back to early 2022 because of the pandemic and weather concerns, while the 2023 tournament was held in Ivory Coast earlier this year to avoid the West African rainy season.

Despite Caf failing to meet its aim of aligning the past two tournaments with the European football calendar, Mosengo-Omba admits it could very well happen again in Morocco.

“If this is for the interests of the player, why not? Because we have to focus in terms of the player," he said.

Meanwhile, the date for the qualifying draw for the 2025 Afcon is set to be announced after the next meeting of Caf’s executive committee.

Qualifiers are expected to be held in September, October and November this year.


Veron Mosengo-Omba was appointed as Caf's general secretary in March 2021, having previously worked at Fifa

ojun50:
When are we going to host this cup again in Nigeria

tremilatre:
Watching this Euros makes me wonder when African football will ever be pleasant to the eye. Even Serbia vs Slovenia, how they move the ball and make the right passes makes the game easy to watch.
African football needs to step up, no one would waste precious 90mins for hoof-ball and "all physicality no guile".

Sheistoopretty:
Everything about Africa is backward, i can't turn on an African movie in my apartment, neither do I listen to African musics

Shurtman79:
I think there's something wrong with Black's even in Africa check when this northern Africans are playing there's difference

Jackanda1:
The article is a bit long. Someone should summarise by mentioning exact dates.

tremilatre:
Watching this Euros makes me wonder when African football will ever be pleasant to the eye. Even Serbia vs Slovenia, how they move the ball and make the right passes makes the game easy to watch.
African football needs to step up, no one would waste precious 90mins for hoof-ball and "all physicality no guile".