The holding of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco has once again been postponed, confirmed on June 21, 2024 by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Initially scheduled for the summer of 2025, the competition will finally take place from December 21, 2025 to January 18, 2026, marking a new change in the calendar of major African football events.
This postponement is not a surprise, given the circumstances which characterized previous editions of the CAN. The competition has often been rescheduled due to various logistical and organizational constraints. Flexibility and adaptability have thus become the norm for CAF, which has had to face unforeseen events such as the Covid-19 pandemic or unfavorable weather conditions.
In the case of CAN 2025, the choice to shift the competition from summer to winter can be explained by a busy summer calendar. The 32-team Club World Cup, scheduled for the United States in June and July 2025, would have created a scheduling conflict with the CAN. In order to avoid any overlap and to guarantee optimal conditions for the players, it was therefore decided to postpone the African competition.
This decision, although predictable, marks a new stage in the organization of the CAN. By making this shift, CAF is innovating by scheduling the tournament over two consecutive years, with a start scheduled for December 2025 and a final in January 2026. This initiative aims to harmonize the calendars of the different international competitions and to allow players from European clubs to participate fully in the CAN without conflict of agenda.
Thus, CAN 2025 in Morocco promises to be a major event for African football, marked by its originality in terms of calendar and its desire to offer the best conditions to players and participating teams. This constant adaptation to external circumstances and this capacity to innovate make the CAN an unmissable event in the global sporting landscape.