Football News Update: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations Qualifying Draw Set for July 4th in Johannesburg
The qualifying draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) is scheduled to take place on Thursday, July 4th, in Johannesburg. The 48 competing teams will be divided into 12 groups of four, with the top two from each group advancing to the finals in Morocco.
The tournament hosts, the Atlas Lions, have already secured their spot in the finals, so only one team from their group will earn a ticket to North Africa. The dates for the 2025 Afcon finals are yet to be announced by the Confederation of African Football (Caf).
“Scheduling is a nightmare,” said Caf secretary general Veron Mosengo-Omba, highlighting the difficulty in finding suitable dates and admitting the 2025 finals could potentially be played in early 2026.
Caf had previously committed to staging its flagship men’s tournament at the end of the European club season, in a June-July slot. However, these dates will clash with FIFA’s inaugural 32-team Club World Cup next year, posing scheduling challenges.
“We need to make sure that the dates that we’ll be choosing will be in the interests of the players,” said the Swiss-Congolese official, emphasizing the workload concerns for the continent’s elite players.
The qualifying matches for the 2025 Afcon will take place in September, October, and November of this year. Chad, Eswatini, Liberia, and South Sudan have all progressed through a preliminary round to join the continent’s 44 highest-ranked nations in the group draw.
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