CAF General Secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba has revealed that the 2025 AFCON in Morocco scheduled for next July will clash with the Club World Cup, set for June 15-July 13 in the United States.
Mosengo-Omba revealed that the Women’s African Cup of Nations, WAFCON would also be rescheduled due to the teams’ participation in the Olympics. The tournament was scheduled to be held in Morocco in 2024 but no specific date has been communicated yet though qualification has been completed.
“We are supposed to play this year but we have teams engaged in the Olympics, so we have to find another date,” Mosengo-Omba explained.
He said CAF is in talks with key stakeholders including FIFA and UEFA to ensure the best dates and players’ welfare. Mosengo-Omba said the Confederation is engaging UEFA because most of the players are based in Europe.
“We are talking with UEFA because most of the players are playing in Europe, the European Club Association and also with FIFA in order to find [a] suitable date.”
Just like the female competitions, the male competition will also be pushed back to avoid clashing with the expanded FIFA Club World Cup. The tournament was originally scheduled to be played in July/August 2025.
“For the men, we need to make sure that the dates that we’ll be choosing will be in the interests of the players,” Mosengo-Omba told BBC Africa.
“For this, we need to balance different aspects and also discuss with our partners and then we complete [the dates]. Scheduling is a nightmare for everybody.”
He said scheduling is a nightmare for the Confederation but it is working with stakeholders to solve that.
“Scheduling is a nightmare for everybody. We can play after the Club World Cup, but is this good for the interests of the players who have played all the season and then they travel to America to play (and then) immediately come to play Afcon?,” Mosengo-Omba said.