CAF announces dates for 2025 AFCON in Morocco

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced that the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) will take place in December 2025 in Morocco. The tournament will begin on December 21, 2025, with the final match scheduled for January 18, 2026.

The announcement was part of a series of decisions made by CAF on Friday. Among other updates, CAF revealed that the Women’s AFCON will also be held in Morocco, kicking off in July 2025, and the CAF Ordinary General Assembly will be hosted in Kinshasa, DRC, in October this year.

Morocco was awarded the hosting rights for the 2025 AFCON in September last year, replacing Guinea, which was stripped of the right to host the tournament in 2022.

The qualifying draw for the 2025 AFCON is set to take place in July this year in Johannesburg. A total of 48 teams will be divided into 12 groups, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the finals in Morocco.

At this qualification, Uganda Cranes are hoping to secure a favorable group as they aim to return to the continental tournament, where they last appeared in 2019 under French coach Sébastien Desabre.

Last year, the Uganda Cranes narrowly missed out on qualification for the second consecutive time, when they finished third in their group, just one point behind Tanzania, who qualified as group runners-up as Algeria topped the group with 16 points.

Meanwhile, as Morocco sets the stage for the continent’s premier football event, the much anticipated 2027 East African Pamoja AFCON also draws close. URN understands that each of the three East African countries involved has ramped up preparations for the event, which will be hosted in East Africa for the first time.

In Uganda particularly, the government has recently signed a contract with M/S SUMMA, a Turkish company, to begin construction on a 20,000-seater multipurpose stadium in Hoima, one of the venues to be used for AFCON.

This was done just a few days after the National Council of Sports signed a memorandum of understanding with Kyambogo University to develop its stadium into a modern facility that will be used for training during AFCON.

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URN