“Honestly, we don’t have a date. We still hope that we will know soon enough where the 2025 African Cup of Nations will take place, and even before it begins. “With a touch of irony and a hint of exaggeration, this leader of a sub-Saharan federation waits, with undisguised impatience, for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to reveal the name of the country which will organize the competition, initially entrusted in Guinea, but which was withdrawn in September 2022, due to the excessive delays noted by the various inspection missions mandated by the body.
The latter had first considered announcing on February 10 who, from Algeria, Morocco, Zambia and the Nigeria-Benin duo, would replace Guinea. But CAF had given up on it, remembering that on this date, Morocco was organizing the FIFA Club World Cup (from February 1 to 11).
A private audit firm named
The Confederation has decided that it will deliver the verdict of its executive committee from a country which is not a candidate. In theory, it will therefore not be in Cotonou, on July 13, on the occasion of its general assembly, since Benin has submitted a joint file with its Nigerian neighbor. There was also talk of ending the suspense in Kigali, on the sidelines of the last FIFA congress, on March 16, as several federation presidents had envisaged.
The Confederation of African Football had good reason not to announce the name of the host country during the first quarter of this year. Indeed, the choice of the private audit firm responsible for carrying out the various inspection missions was appointed late, during the month of March, after Patrice Motsepe and his services took the time to reflect.
In theory, this cabinet, whose name is jealously kept secret, should have made its visits between March 20 and April 2. A schedule had even been established: Zambia was to be the first country concerned (March 20, 21 and 22), followed by Morocco (March 24, 25 and 26), Algeria (March 27, 28 and 29) and finally Nigeria and Benin (31 March, 1 and 2 April). “But it was not possible, since several international matches were organized in these countries on these dates”, confirms Véron Mosengo-Omba, the general secretary of CAF.
Morocco is the favorite
These visits should therefore take place in April or May and the cabinet will then have to write its final report and send it to the executive committee. “For CAF, there is an imperative: we will not choose a country which, on the date of these visits, will be too far from the specifications, and in particular on the stadiums, since it takes six to organize a phase final with twenty-four selections, adds Mr. Mosengo-Omba. We will not entrust the tournament to a country which still has to build two or three stadiums. »
While the date of disclosure of the organizing country remains uncertain for the moment, several decisions seem to have been taken, at least unofficially, while Morocco is the favorite. The CAN 2025 will take place in a country which not only has all the infrastructures required by the thick specifications, but is also able to organize it in June and July, like the CAF, then chaired by the Malagasy Ahmad Ahmad, had decided in 2017. And in particular to no longer attract the hostility of European clubs, increasingly irritated by the obligation to release players in January and February, as in Cameroon in 2022 and in Côte d’ Ivory in 2024.
The new CAN formula, with twenty-four selections, took place only once in the heart of summer, during the 2019 edition in Egypt. “And it is in particular because we can play football in the Maghreb in June and July that the 2025 edition will take place there”, confirms a source close to CAF.
