The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Friday agreed to stage the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in December, with the tournament taking place between 2025 and 2026. During the meeting of the executive committee of CAF on Friday, it was agreed that the competition, scheduled to take place in Morocco will take place between December 21, 2025 and January 18, 2026.

The confederation has been having headache over the timing of the tournament which initially was scheduled for the January-February calendar. That period proved impossible owing to congested fixtures that have affected the qualifying series.

Available windows are already taken up by the qualifying series for the 2026 World Cup making it impossible for the 24 finalists for the AFCON 2025 to emerge before January 2025. Morocco proposed the tournament for the summer of 2025, but the inaugural 32-format FIFA Club World Cup of 2025 has made that impossible. Other worries of CAF include the timing for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco this year which is yet to get a date and the annual Women’s Champions League which till now has no hosts let alone a date.