Nigeria Loses Out As Morocco, East Africans To Host 2025, 2027 AFCON Tournaments

Morocco will host the 35th edition of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2025, the executive committee of Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has announced.

The decision was taken during its meeting on Wednesday in Cairo, Egypt.

Morocco will be hosting Africa’s flagship event for the second time, 35 years after the North African country staged the competition in 1988.

Morocco won by default after Algeria, Zambia, and a joint bid from Benin Republic and Nigeria were all withdrawn before the vote of the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee in Cairo on Wednesday.

The North African country was a runaway favourite and will see the decision as a boost to their hopes of co-hosting the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Spain.

Meanwhile, the rights for 2027 edition were handed to a co-bid from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The joint East African bid for 2027 returns the African flagship event to the region for the first time since 1976.

They beat Botswana, Egypt and Senegal in a vote of the CAF executive committee. Algeria was also a candidate but earlier withdrew on Tuesday.