The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations has been moved due to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup scheduled to take place in the USA.
Amidst rising tensions between administrators of domestic football associations and world football’s governing body FIFA, the African football showpiece is the latest to be hit.
The tournament which was scheduled to be held from in the summer of 2025 has now been rescheduled to January 2026.
Confirming the postponement of the continental soccer fiesta, CAF Secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba cited the problem of congested fixtures as a challenge that necessitated the postponement.
The African football chief added it will not be in the best interest of players to turn up for the tournament after taking part in the 2025 FIFA World Cup a few weeks earlier.
“We could play the AFCON after the Club World Cup, but would it be in the interest of the players, who played the whole season, to go to America and return immediately to participate in the AFCON afterwards?,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Africa have been allotted four slots in the maiden edition of the revamped FIFA Club World Cup which will feature 32 teams.
We reported earlier some domestic football league administrators in Europe have threatened to boycott the tournament claiming FIFA is killing the game with an overcrowded calendar.
According to them, the 32-team FIFA Club World Cup is surplus to requirement amidst multiple football competitions that have taken a toll on footballers and by extension club football management.
According to reports, CAF’s decision to shift the 2025 AFCON to January is set to cause uproar among European clubs who will be up to gears with domestic club competitions by that time.
Morocco, who are the hosts of the tournament, have also been reportedly unfazed by the decision. The 2022 World Cup semi-finalists have their traditional months in the summer and had wanted to use the tournament to promote the tourism sector. Now, they could be forced to shelve such arrangements due to the rescheduling of the tournament.
