The 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is scheduled to take place between 21 December 2025 and 18 January 2026. The biennial African football tournament will be hosted by Morocco for the second time in the competition’s history.
Guinea was originally named the hosts for this edition but was forced to withdraw their hosting rights due to inadequacy of preparations. Morocco was named as the new host on 27 September 2023 after a second bidding process. Morocco was originally scheduled to host the 2015 edition of the tournament but was unable to because of fears of the Western African Ebola virus epidemic.
There will be 24 teams participating in AFCON 2025, all of them have previously participated in the tournament. The nations taking part are: Morocco, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Algeria, DR Congo, Angola, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Gaon, Uganda, South Africa, Tunisia, Nigeria, Mali, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Benin, Sudan, Tanzania, Botswana and Mozambique.
The big exclusion from the tournament is four-time African champions Ghana, who failed to qualify after finishing bottom of their group in the qualifiers. It is the first time they are missing out on the Africa Cup of Nations since 2004.
The defending champions of the tournament are Ivory Coast who won their 3rd title by defeating Nigeria in the Finals in 2023. Third place was taken by South Africa and fourth secured by DR Congo.
Qualification
The qualifiers for the tournament were held earlier this year between 20 March and 19 November 2024. The preliminary round draw was held on 20 February 2024 in Cairo, Egypt and involved eight national teams. The four winners: Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan advanced to the next round with the other 44 teams which had entered directly.
The group stage occurred in Johannesburg, South Africa with 48 national teams divided into twelve groups of four. The top 2 teams from each group made it through to the main tournament.
Some of the notable qualifiers were Tunisia who made it for the 22nd time, extending their record for consecutive participation to 17 in a row. Botswana qualified for just the second time in their history after first participating back in 2012. Some teams that missed out after qualifying for the last edition of the tournament are Gambia, Guinea, Cape Verde, Mauritania and Namibia.
Venues
There will be 6 venues used in the tournament in six different cities:
- Agadir Adrar Stadium- Agadir
- Mohammed V Stadium- Casablanca 45,891
- Fez Stadium- Fez
- Marrakesh Stadium- Marrakesh
- Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium- Rabat
- Ibn Batouta Stadium- Tangier
Tournament Structure
There will be 6 groups which each consist of 4 teams in the competition. The top two teams of each group, along with the best four third-placed teams, will advance to the round of 16. Each team is expected to play each other tema in their group twice. Teams will be awarded 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss.
If there is a tie in points at the end of the group stage the following tiebreaker criteria will apply in the order listed:
- Points in head-to-head matches between the tied teams.
- Goal difference in head-to-head matches between tied teams.
- Goals scored in head-to-head matches between tied teams.
From the Round of 16 onwards, all matches will be knockout with the losing team being eliminated from the tournament.
AFCON 2025 Key Dates
On 16 December 2024, the Confederation of African Football announced the draw date for the group stage will be 27 January 2025 in Rabat. All teams except for Morocco will be in the draw, while the hosts have already been placed in Group A.
The tournament opener will be played on Sunday, 21 December 2025 and the Final on Sunday, 18 January. The venue for the Final has already been decided as the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.
