CAF Strips Guinea 2025 AFCON hosting rights

The Confederation of African Football is to re-open bidding for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) after stripping Guinea of the rights to host the competition, with Morocco among the nations set to apply.

CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, was in the Guinean capital Conakry on Friday when he announced that the 24-team tournament will be removed because of a lack of suitably advancing infrastructure and facilities.

“The 2025 Nations Cup allocated to Guinea will not take place there because we’re not yet ready in Guinea,” said Motsepe in a news conference after meeting the leadership of Guinea’s transitional government.

Guinea has had nearly a decade to prepare for the finals, having originally been named as host of the 2023 Nations Cup in 2014, prior to then being asked to host in 2025 instead.

The political situation in Guinea, which has been under military rule since a coup last year, had led to concerns over security and organisation for its Nations Cup hosting.

However, in August, Guinea’s military junta insisted it was committed to hosting the 2025 finals, and would release funds and fast-track access to land to help preparations for an event labelled an issue of “national and priority interest” by the head of the military government.

“The CAF decision was taken in July and was reported to the transitional government in Guinea, stating that where we are right now, there should be a process to allow new bids to come forward,” South African Motsepe said.

“Caf is going to ask to receive new bids because the infrastructure and facilities are not appropriate or ready for Caf to host the 2025 Nations Cup in Guinea, and that’s the basis of the decision.”

Morocco, which hosted this year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in July, intends to apply to host the 2025 finals, a source within the Royal Moroccan Football Federation indicated.