On Wednesday, June 5, reports went viral that the 2025 AFCON which is scheduled to take place in Morocco has been postponed by six months. This means that the biannual competition was expected to be held in early 2026.
The reason for this reported postponement was because of the expanded version of the FIFA Club World Cup which has been scheduled to take place in the United States from June 15 to July 13, 2025.
This is the window the 2025 AFCON ought to take place but according to CAF General Secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba, it will be too harsh on the players to play the Club World Cup and then come back to play in the 2025 AFCON. Hence, he told the BBC that the African football competition has been postponed to the following year.
He said, "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?"
"Scheduling is a nightmare for everybody."
However, CAF took to its official X page to stress that the competition has not been postponed contrary to the viral reports.
The football body noted that a meeting will be convened to discuss the possibility of having the competition in 2025 or moving it to early 2026.
"Reports on AFCON 2025 are untrue. The CAF Executive Committee will meet, deliberate and decide on the AFCON 2025 dates. CAF will thereafter issue an official statement on the matter," CAF posted on X.
Note that the 2021 AFCON was held in the winter (January to February) of 2022 due to harsh weather conditions in the host country, Cameroon. The same scenario played out during the 2023 edition which was played from January to February 2024 due to the weather conditions in Ivory Coast.
So, it wouldn't be a surprise if the 2025 AFCON is played in 2026 due to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
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