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By Amaechi Agbo

Morocco, first Africa country to reach the FIFA World Cup semi-final has won the bid to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON.

Confederation of Africa Football, CAF announced the decision on Wednesday after its Congress in Cairo, Egypt.

The North African agernered all the 22 votes to emerge the host leaving other bidding countries – Nigeria and Algeria with zero votes

It would be the 3rd time the country is hosting continental football tournaments in three years.

Morocco hosted the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations, AWCON and will host the next edition next year.

Nigeria submitted a joint bid with Benin Republic.

The tournament was supposed to be hosted in June-July 2025, however due to the formation of the expanded FIFA Club World Cup scheduled to be held in June-July 2025, the 2025 AFCON might be hosted in January-February 2026.

Bidding process timelines:

11 November 2022: Deadline for submitting the Declaration of Interest form

16 November 2022: Deadline for CAF to send the hosting documents to Member Associations that have declared their interest.

16 December 2022: Deadline for Member Associations to submit their final bid, including all bidding and hosting documents (hosting agreement, host cities agreement, Government guarantees)

20 March–2 April 2023: Inspection visits
27 September 2023: Appointment of Host Country/Countries by the CAF Executive Committee