President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Dr Patrice Motsepe, has backed host nation Morocco to deliver the best Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in history, after announcing the timeframe for the continent’s flagship tournament on Friday.
CAF, as reported by Football411 on June 5, was faced with an uphill task of announcing the opening dates for the AFCON 2025 and the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) due to potential clashes with FIFA competitions and the Paris 2024 Olympics.
After an Executive Committee meeting on Friday, the football federation announced July 5 to July 26, 2025, as the timeframe for WAFCON 2024 and December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, for AFCON 2025.
“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,” Motsepe reacted to the dates via CAFOnlin.
The 62-year-old continued, “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 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.”
The draws for the AFCON 2025 qualifiers are slated for July 5, in Johannesburg, South Africa. 48 nations will be drawn into 12 Groups of four teams each to determine the 24 countries that’ll qualify for the 35th edition of the tournament. The qualifiers are expected to kick off in September.
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