The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations has been postponed to January 2026, a six-month delay, because of a congested FIFA schedule.
Originally planned for the summer of 2025 in Morocco, the tournament was shifted in response to FIFA’s expanded 32-team Club World Cup, which will take place from June 15 to July 13, 2025, in the USA.
With Africa allotted four slots in the Club World Cup, many of the continent’s top players will be competing for clubs in Africa, Europe, and Asia.
CAF Secretary General Veron Mosengo-Omba noted the impracticality of holding AFCON immediately after the Club World Cup, questioning the fairness to players who would have to travel from America to Africa post-season to compete in AFCON.
The rescheduling of the tournament is expected to cause dissatisfaction among key figures who played a significant role in bringing the event to Morocco. The country intended to leverage the prestigious tournament to boost its growing tourism industry, but the shift from the usual summer period to a winter start may lead to discontent among influential individuals.
The timing of AFCON has long been a contentious issue for European football clubs, which have opposed the January schedule due to the prolonged absence of their African players. The move to a summer schedule had previously alleviated these concerns, but returning to a January timeframe is likely to reignite debates about the tournament’s timing.
The Ivory Coast is the reigning AFCON champion, having won on home soil in February.
In what has been lauded as the most exciting AFCON to date, the West African nation narrowly defeated Nigeria with a score of 2-1 in the final.