June 6 – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has confirmed that the 2025 African Cup of Nations might be delayed because of a clash with the expanded FIFA Club World Cup.
CAF general secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba told the BBC: “For the men, we need to make sure that the dates that we’ll be choosing will be in the interests of the 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.”
The Africa Cup of Nations is scheduled to take place next summer in Morocco at the same time as the Club World Cup, the expanded 32-team tournament that FIFA will organise in the United States.
“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.
“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? We have to put this in balance before [we] take a decision.”
It would be the third consecutive time that CAF have moved the tournament.
The 2021 finals in Cameroon were postponed until 2022 because of the Coronavirus pandemic and weather concerns. The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations was staged in Ivory Coast in January and February 2024 to avoid the rainy season in the country.
Mosengo-Omba also indicated that the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) in Morocco might 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,” said Mosengo-Omba. “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.”
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