It has not been a pleasant outing so far for the Super Eagles in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. They have another nine months to wait to reset their arsenal.

But while the World Cup qualifying series go on recess, attention now focuses on the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series.

In exactly three weeks’ time, the Super Eagles will know their opponents in the qualification race for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Next year’s finals, which will be the 35^th edition of Africa’s flagship football championship, will be staged by Morocco.

Preliminary stage survivors Chad, e-Swatini, Liberia and South Sudan will join 44 others for the draw that will hold at the SuperSport studios in Johannesburg, South Africa in the afternoon of Thursday, 4^th July.

The 48 countries will be drawn into 12 groups of four teams each, with the top two teams in each pool qualifying directly to the finals in Morocco.

The first two games of the qualification series will take place in the FIFA window in September (2^nd – 10^th), with two other matches in the window in October (7^th – 15^th) and the final two games in the November window (11^th – 19^th).

Nigeria’s Super Eagles are the runners up at the last edition.

The journey to the  CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 will resume with the draw for the Qualifiers on Thursday, 04 July 2024, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The draw will be conducted at SuperSport studios in South Africa at 14h30 local time (15h30 Cairo time, 12h30 GMT).

48 Nations, including the four winners from the preliminary round (Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan) will be drawn into 12 Groups of four teams each to battle it out for places at the finals.

Headlining the confirmed Nations for the draw are reigning African champions Cote d’Ivoire joined by Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, DR Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and Ethiopia.

Others include Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The qualifiers are scheduled to kick-off in September 2024 to determine the first 24 nations that will compete for Africa’s biggest event, the  CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in 2025.

Fresh from the thrills and successes of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 where the host nation defied all odds to claim their third title, a line-up of intriguing matches is expected for the journey to the 35th edition of the showpiece continental sporting event.

In attendance will be selected CAF legends, representatives of the participating teams, members of the Local Organising Committee for Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 amongst others.

-CAF

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has dismissed circulating reports on the social media pointing to a possible postponement of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to hold in Morocco.

According to the continental football governing body on its x-handle, the executive committee will meet to deliberate and make decision on the official dates.

 The speculation on possible postponement may have arisen owing to FIFA holding an expanded Club World Cup in the summer of 2025 thus making June/July inappropriate for the AFCON as some of the star players would also be engaged by their various clubs.

  The Africa Cup of Nations had suffered several setbacks since the calendar was shifted from the even-ending year to the odd year.

  The first of such edition was 2013 which was to hold in Libya. But owing to the civil disorder in that country, CAF opted to swap the venues by taking it to South Africa while the 2015, initially for South Africa was to hold in Libya.

  By that time, the civil disorder in Libya had escalated into full-blown war and CAF had to award the hosting to Morocco. It could not also hold there owing to outbreak of ebola virus in Guinea which also qualified for the final competition. It was eventually held in Equatorial Guinea.

  The 2017 edition was to return to Libya, but the war was still on and the competition was taken to Gabon.

  The 2019 was to be in Cameroon, but the facilities were not in place and the tournament moved to Egypt where a new time-table of July-August was established. The 2021 originally meant for Cote d’Ivoire had to be moved to Cameroon which eventually hosted in January 2022 instead of June/July initial timetable of 2021.

  The 2023 edition moved to January 2024 in Cote d’Ivoire.