Caf postpones Men’s and Women’s Afcon opens bid for three competitions

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) will be held in December 2025 and January 2026 while the 2024 Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) has been postponed until July next year.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has announced the 2025 Afcon, to be hosted by Morocco, will begin on 21 December and the final will be on 18 January.

The scheduling will see the 24-team finals overlap with the Premier League's festive programme and take place between match rounds in the Uefa Champions League.

It will be the first time in Nations Cup history that the tournament will kick off in December and run over the Christmas and New Year period.

The 2024 Wafcon, also set to be held in Morocco, will take place between 5 and 26 July next year.

Caf had previously committed to stage its flagship men's tournament at the end of the European club season, in a June-July slot, but those dates next year will clash with Fifa's inaugural 32-team Club World Cup.

It remains to be seen whether Europe's top clubs will agree to release players for the 2025 Nations Cup, with both the club and international calendars increasingly congested.

The 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in June and July of that year, with nine African sides guaranteed to be at the expanded 48-team tournament.

Under the world governing body's rules on the release of players, it appears clubs are within their rights to block players going to either the Nations Cup or the World Cup later in 2026.

"It is not compulsory to release the same player for more than one "A" representative team final competition per year," Fifa's regulations on the status and transfer of players state.

Caf president Patrice Motespe said announcing the dates for the 2025 Afcon took "much longer than expected" because of "complex and at times challenging discussions" with interested parties.

"Caf is committed to protecting and advancing the interests of African players playing in clubs in Europe and worldwide," he added.

"We will continue to make significant progress in developing and ensuring that African football is globally competitive and amongst the best in the world."

Meanwhile, Caf has invited bids from interested countries for the 2024 Caf Women’s Champions League, Africa U-20 Cup of Nations, and Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.

Africa’s soccer governing body is also looking for a host for Caf Awards 2024.

Morocco hosted the last edition of the Caf Women’s Champions League, while the previous editions of the U-20 Afcon and U-17 Afcon were staged in Egypt and Algeria respectively.

The 2023 edition of the Caf Awards was hosted by Morocco.

The 2024 Caf Super Cup between Egyptian sides, Al Ahly and Zamalek will take place in the Middle East.

The name of the host country will be announced later.