AFCON 2025 in Morocco faces scheduling conflict due to new Club World Cup and Champions League format
The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) hosted by Morocco could be rescheduled for December, according to the Guardian.
The tournament was originally slated for next summer, but it will potentially clash with the revamped Club World Cup and Champions League.
Sources within the Moroccan organising committee reportedly favour a December kick-off for the group stage, with the final falling in mid-January 2026.
However, this scenario could also create a new headache as it clashes with the busy festive period in the Premier League.
Most Premier League clubs had representatives at the 2023 edition in Ivory Coast. A winter AFCON could disrupt player availability and spark tensions between club and country.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is expected to make a final decision within the next two weeks.
The situation has been further complicated by the addition of two extra match days scheduled for the last two weeks of January.
There will be two more match days in the expanded Champions League which begins next season.
That means the traditional AFCON window in January and February – when the knockout stage of the Champions League is due to start – will likely cause even more disruption.
CAF initially denied reports suggesting they would start playing the tournament every four years.
However, accommodating the expanded 32-team Club World Cup, set for summer 2025 in the United States, has forced a rethink.
Several sources from African national associations have also revealed their fears that plans for the tournament to be staged every four years instead of two are in motion.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino proposed the change in 2020, arguing that it would benefit countries commercially.
However, this was dismissed as impossible by CAF sources and President Patrice Motsepe, who claimed he remains committed to maintaining the status quo.
