BY LAWRENCE KOOKO
The Confederations of African Football Federation (CAF) has confirmed dates for the 2025 Total Energies African Cup of Nations (AFCON) to be played in Morocco. This was during an executive committee (EXCO) meeting yesterday.
Officials said that the CAF TotalEnergies AFCON Morocco 2025 opening Match will be played on Sunday 21 December 2025 and the 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 will also be hosted in Morocco.
The President of CAF Dr Patrice Motsepe said: “I am confident that the CAF TotalEnergies WAFCON 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 noted that they are committed to protecting and advancing the interests of African players, playing in football clubs in Europe and worldwide and also committed to building mutually beneficial relationships with the ECA, UEFA, other Football Confederations and FIFA
Motsepe said, “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 Federation 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 federation of Moroccan football president Mr. Fouzi Lekjaa said: “We hope that the CAF TotalEnergies AFCON Morocco 2025 will be the best event to honor Africa and Morocco will make available the best conditions to host the rest of Africa and the World.”
Group stages draws confirmed
The draw will be conducted at SuperSport studios in South Africa at 14h30 local time (15h30 Cairo time, 12h30 GMT).
48 Nations, including the four winners from the preliminary round (Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan) will be drawn into 12 Groups of four teams each to battle it out for places at the finals.
Headlining the confirmed Nations for the draw are reigning African champions Cote d’Ivoire joined by Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, DR Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and Ethiopia.
Others include Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The qualifiers are scheduled to kick-off in September 2024 to determine the first 24 nations that will compete for Africa’s biggest event, the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in 2025.
