At the beginning of February, the president of CAF, Patrice Motsepe, refused to give a date for the CAN postponed after having initially been scheduled for January-February 2025. Its holding in summer will take place while the International Federation (Fifa) organizes its first major 32-team Club World Cup from June 15 to July 13 in the United States.
On Monday, an official of the committee in charge of competitions told AFP on condition of anonymity that there was “an agreement in principle between CAF and the Moroccan Football Federation for the CAN to be held during the “summer, more precisely in July and August” 2025. “This agreement was reached under the aegis of Fifa after talks that began several months ago and which intensified during the last edition concluded this month in Ivory Coast,” he continued. “The currently proposed dates are from July 20 to August 16 or 17, 2025,” he concluded.
The two previous CANs have already been postponed. CAN-2021 was played in January-February 2022 in Cameroon, and the latest African Cup, still officially called CAN-2023, began on January 13 in Ivory Coast before being won by the host country a week ago.
Furthermore, the qualifications for CAN-2025 have still not started. A preliminary round is scheduled from March 18 to 26 according to the CAF calendar. CAN-2027 must be organized in three countries, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
