CAF President Patrice Motsepe has announced Morocco as the host nation for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] finals, with the trio of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania set to co-host the 2027 edition.
While it was guaranteed that Morocco are favourites to host the AFCON finals in 2025, the East African trio benefitted from Algeria’s withdrawal from the race.
Algeria withdrew their bid to host the prestigious AFCON finals on the eve of the votes, as their new leadership took a different trajectory.
The North African nation had been in the race to host both the 2025 and 2027 AFCON finals.
WHY MOROCCO WILL HOST THE 2025 AFCON FINALS
Nevertheless, Morocco now replaces Guinea, who CAF stripped of the tournament hosting rights in October last year due to concerns about their infrastructure and facilities.
Morocco won the bid over Zambia and a joint Nigeria-Benin bid for the 2025 tournament.
For 2027, Senegal, Egypt, Botswana and a tripartite arrangement involving Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania remained in the race.
But the Confederation of African Football [CAF] executive committee settled for the trio of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania after independent appraisals of each bidder.
In announcing the hosts of the 2025 and 2027 AFCON finals, Dr Motsepe said: “Our responsibility is to ensure that every region hosts the AFCON, and we hope that our infrastructure reaches that required level so that our game grows.
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“There is also a greater commitment and realisation that hosting the World Cup is a top priority. So, we allowed Morocco to bid for the 2030 edition.
“Therefore, AFCON 2025 will be hosted by Morocco. I want to overemphasise that I’m proud of the countries that sent their bids for our tournaments.
“Every one of those countries has the quality, infrastructure and resources to host the tournament. We appreciate their government’s efforts.
“African football’s future has never been so brighter. The countries that the executive committee has voted for to host the 2027 are Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.”
Meanwhile, the next AFCON will be held in the Ivory Coast in January and February 2024, after it was postponed from June and July this year.
Bafana Bafana will take part in the finals after qualifying from Group K of the qualifiers along with Morocco.
They will be making their return to the AFCON finals, having failed to qualify for the 2021 edition in Cameroon.