Africa Cup of Nations moved due to overcrowding in FIFA schedule

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations has been postponed for six months due to the overcrowded FIFA calendar.

The tournament was scheduled to take place in Morocco in the summer of 2025 but will now be played in January 2026.

The decision was taken in response to FIFA’s revamped 32-team Club World Cup which will be held from June 15 to July 13, 2025 in the USA.

Of the 32 teams invited to play in the Club World Cup, Africa will have four representatives whilst a host of the continent’s stars are expected to appear for African, European and Asian clubs.

Reacting to the postponement of its flagship tournament, Secretary General of the African Confederation (CAF), Veron Mosengo-Omba admitted it would not be in the best interests of the players to play the AFCON after the Club World Cup.

“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.

The new schedule is expected to spark backlash from key figures central to bringing the tournament to the north African nation. 

Morocco was expected to use the showpiece event to boost its growing tourism industry but the switch from its traditional summer months to a winter kick off, is likely to anger senior figures.

AFCON has long caused uproar among European clubs who oppose the January scheduling and subsequent unavailability of their African stars for up to a month.

The summer scheduling did much to appease clubs but the revert to January will no doubt reignite questions over the dates of the tournaments.

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Ivory Coast are the current AFCON holders following their success on home soil in February.

The west African nation edged past Nigeria 2-1 in the final of what was widely referred to as the most entertaining AFCON in its history.