AFCON 2025 final draw to take place in Rabat on January 27
The Final Draw for the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Morocco 2025 will be held in Rabat on 27 January 2025, where the 24 qualifying teams will discover their group-stage opponents. The event will be attended by representatives of the competing nations.
The draw will place the teams into six groups of four, with the top two teams from each group, along with the four best third-placed sides, advancing to the knockout stage. The 2025 AFCON will mark Morocco’s first time hosting the tournament since 1988. The country is also set to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal.
This AFCON 35th edition will feature a competitive field, with notable teams including defending champions Senegal, record winners Egypt, and previous champions Algeria and Cameroon. The tournament, which first began in 1957, continues to be a premier football event in Africa, drawing excitement from fans and teams alike.
Late last June, CAF announced that the final phases of the 35th edition of AFCON-2025 Morocco, will take place from December 21, 2025 to January 18, 2026.
The opening match of “Africa’s most popular and competitive football competition”, the Africa Cup of Nations, to be held in Morocco, will take place on Sunday December 21, 2025, while the final game will be held on Sunday January 18, 2026, CAF had stated in a post on its website.
The President of CAF Patrice Motsepe had expressed confidence that the AFCON Morocco 2025 will be “extremely successful and will be the best AFCON in the history of this competition.”
“We will continue to make significant progress in developing and ensuring that African Football is globally competitive and amongst the best in the World,” Motsepe had said, adding that CAF is grateful to King Mohammed VI, to the Government and people of Morocco, and to the Royal Federation of Moroccan Football for hosting the CAF TotalEnergies AFCON Morocco 2025 as well as the CAF TotalEnergies WAFCON Morocco 2024.
Actually, the CAF Executive Committee had also announced the dates for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations 2024 that will also be hosted by Morocco.
The opening match of this competition, which is “growing exponentially”, will be held on Saturday July 5, 2025, and the final match on Saturday July 26, 2025.
CAF Chief had said in this connection: “I am also impressed by the enormous growth of Women’s Football in Africa and I am expecting the CAF TotalEnergies WAFCON Morocco 2024 to be immensely successful.”
“We hope that the CAF TotalEnergies AFCON Morocco 2025 will be the best event to honor Africa, and Morocco will make available the best conditions to host the rest of Africa and the World,” President of the FRMF Fouzi Lekjaa had said on his part.
