AFCON
One Year to 2025 AFCON: Behold Morocco’s magnificent stadiums for the tournament
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is one year to the Morocco 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. And the clock ticks down to the first Africa Cup of Nations finals to be held in the month of December and the first to spill into the following year.
The tournament kicks off on Sunday 21 December and ends on 18 January 2026.
Morocco 2025 holds great significance and is signalling even bigger events ahead – the 2030 World Cup. But a great event is already being anticipated even as the Local Organising Committee is yet to announce the host cities.
Yet, calculated guesses can be made with almost 99 per cent success assurance. Morocco boasts many big stadiums with great historical and architectural importance.
Sports Village Square has visited virtually all existing major stadiums in the Kingdom of Morocco. They are mainly managed by Société nationale de réalisation et de gestion des stades (SONARGES) which in English translates to National Stadium Construction and Management Company.
Each of the stadiums has its peculiarity. Some of the stadiums are also time-honoured. Here are some of them.
Grand Stade d’Agadir; where the Atlas Mountains blend with the sports facility
Occasionally, structural designers attempt a blend of nature with constructions. This is very apparent in the design of Grand Stade d’Agadir, one of the arenas that Morocco is proposing for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
The stadium is lying at the foot of the Atlas Mountain from where the Morocco national team derived their appellation, Atlas Lions, is one of the stadiums that the North African nation is putting forward for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Sports Village Square visited the arena in 2023. According to Hitcham Allouli, the stadium’s director, the 45,480-capacity Grand Stade Adrar Agadir was designed to form part of Morocco’s bid for the 2010 World Cup.
Early construction works kicked off in 2003 but works progressed slowly and stalled when South Africa got awarded the World Cup instead of Morocco.
Construction works resumed in 2007 and were completed in October 2013 and hosted some matches of that year’s edition of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Located on the eastern edge of the Agadir at the foot of the Atlas Mountain range, the stadium is about five kilometres from Agadir’s centre and beachfront.
The arena’s director said that the stadium is estimated to have been constructed at cost of one million euro.
The design was by a Moroccan architect, Sad Benkirane in conjunction with a foreign firm, Gregotti Associati International.
Outwardly, the stadium in colour and in shape, is designed to have a perfect harmony with the surrounding hills as outside walls have sloped elevations.
Hitcham Allouli, the director at the stadium informed that the arena, with natural grass, has a media tribune that can hold 288 journalists as well as 12 commentary boxes.
The three-tiered grandstand has three VVIP zones and each has a capacity for 250 guests. This is in addition to 12 lounges that can host 300 guests.
The locker rooms have facilities for ice rooms as well as sauna baths.
The ability of the arena to host major international tournaments, especially the Africa Cup of Nations has already been proven as the Grand Stadium d’Agadir hosted international matches and also the FIFA Club World Cup in 2013.
Stade de Marrakech offers first-ever ever-rectangular-shaped stadium with elliptical running tracks
Stade de Marrakech
The Stade de Marrakech which is some 11 km from the city centre has a unique architectural design.
It is the first stadium in the world to be both rectangular and also incorporate an elliptical running track for athletics.
Sports Village Square gathered that the arena was designed by Italian firm, Gregotti Associati International. It is adorned in brick red colour outwardly to have harmony with the ancient city that is noted for its trademark red walls.
Generally, Marrakech, the city that hosted the 2023 and 2024 CAF Awards, is nicknamed “Red City” as most buildings are constructed in red sandstone.
The stadium outwardly cut the picture of an ancient fort and has four towers at the corners of the unique arena.
Each tower carries a set of halogen lamps that illuminate the natural lush green grass and the main bowl.
This may not be a coincidence. As the director of the stadium, Rachid Naifi explained, the shape refers to fortifications on one hand and to local architecture in general.
That’s why massive elements dominate the geometrical forms and give the stadium rhythm and colours that are all-natural, from white to brown.
The Marrakech Stadium was opened in January 2011. It holds 45,240 spectators in its bowel.
Of this, 200 seats are allocated as the royal stand, while another 600 are for the very important persons.
The media tribune can hold 1,130 journalists. Provision is also made for the physically challenged spectators as an area that can accommodate 700 of them is carved out.
The stadium is essentially for football and athletics. Just before the 12 locker rooms is a vast yard-like enclosure which can be used for warm-up indoors.
According to Rachid Naifi, the director of the arena, four of the 12 locker rooms are for footballers while eight are for those featuring in athletics.
The Grand Stade de Marrakech hosted some matches of the 2013 and 2014 FIFA Club World Cup.
It has also hosted the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup and the 2014 African Championships in Athletics.
Fez Stadium honours World Cup goal hero with a big, framed photograph
Kunle Solaja at Fez Stadium
Fez is the second largest city in Morocco and the northern inland part of the country has the Fez Stadium which is a potential host arena for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
It is in this arena that a goal-scorer who qualified an African team into the semi-final of the World Cup is honoured.
Youssel En-Nesyri who leapt an incredible height of 2.78 metres to score Morocco’s winner against Portugal at the last World Cup has a huge photograph that captured the goal episode, adorning the Fez Stadium.
The stadium which seats are in green and red depicting the national colours of Morocco, is one of the arenas to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
En-Nesyri’s incredible jump cum goal set an eye-catching record as it reportedly outperformed Ronaldo’s famous 2.56-metre jump during a game with his former club Juventus in the 2019-2020 football season.
Youssel En-Nesyri picture adorns the Youssel Fez Stadium
Both El-Nesyri and Ronaldo are of the same height. El-Nesyri is a native of the city of Fez. His astounding jump above Portugal’s goalkeeper Diogo Costa and defender, Ruben Dias culminating in a header into the net was described as the highest jump in football goal-scoring episodes.
His native Fez in Morocco has honoured him. According to Anass Erghnouni, the director of the Fez stadium, El-Nesyri started his football career as a youth player at Maghreb Association Sportve de Fes (MAS Fes) before moving to Mohammed VI Football Academy in Rabat.
En-Nesyri later joined Malaga CF in Spain. The home boy is not the only player hounored at the Fez Stadium. A huge emotion-laden photograph of Achraf Hakim kissing the forehead of his mother adorns the opening room of magnificent Fez Stadium.
More significant is perhaps the life-sized photograph that King Mohammed VI took with the Atlas Lions upon return from Qatar 2022 World Cup.
The use of photographs that capture Morocco’s passion for football may not be a surprise. Erghnouni, the director of the stadium and top official at Morocco’s stadium management company, SONARGES explained that Fez is one of the biggest cultural centres of Morocco and harbouring over 12 centuries of history.
The simplicity of the stadium’s design is to showcase the city’s old century of culture, explained Erghnouni. The pitch of the stadium has lush green natural grass.
The resident clubs at the 45,000-capacity stadium are Maghreb Association Sportive de Fès (MAS Fes) and Wydad Athletic de Fès.
Though in existence since 1997, it was officially commissioned 10 years later.
It has four locker rooms for football teams, making it very good for double-header matches for which the Africa Cup of Nations’ group games adopted.
It means that while a game is on, the two other teams who are to take on the pitch later have their locker rooms.
Four huge slanting flood light pillars each carry 50 halogen lamps to ensure a brilliant spectacle both for spectators and television viewers.
Stade Mohammed V, Casablanca: Old but modern arena
This is one of the oldest stadiums in Morocco, yet it meets the present-day specifications. It was inaugurated on 6 March 1955.
Situated in the commercial capital, Casablanca, the Stade Mohammed V is named after one of the past monarchs of Morocco after whom the city’s international airport is also named.
This stadium is the home ground of local rivals, Raja Casablanca and Wydad Athletic Club. In 1997, the stadium set a record attendance of 110,000 during the Casablanca derby and a match between the Moroccan national team against Ghana. The same record attendance was repeated during Morocco’s match against Argentina in 2004.
Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier
Tangier boasts of Ibn Batouta Stadium, one of those used at the 2022 Club World Cup. Nigeria also played against Liberia at the arena in one of the qualifying duels for the 2022 World Cup. It is named after a Moroccan scholar and explorer.
The architectural marvel, located at the tip of the continent, has a capacity of 65,000 after renovation construction is finished.
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By Kunle Solaja.
Nigeria’s senior national team, the Super Eagles, will discover their route to the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations when the Confederation of African Football (Confederation of African Football) conducts the qualifying draw on May 19, 2026.
This is an exercise that will define the country’s pathway to the historic PAMOJA 2027 tournament.
The draw, coming after the conclusion of the preliminary round, will feature 48 teams, including co-hosts Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. They will be pooled into 12 groups of four teams each. Only the top two teams from each group will progress to the final tournament, setting up what promises to be a fiercely competitive qualification series.
For Nigeria, a three-time African champion and podium finisher in three of the last four editions, the qualification format is familiar, but the stakes are evolving. They will need a good head start to avert the type of tragedy that defined their World Cup 2026 qualification campaign.
The Super Eagles have maintained a strong record in AFCON qualifying campaigns in recent years, yet inconsistency at the tournament proper has raised expectations for not just qualification, but a deeper continental impact.
The six-match qualification series will be spread across three FIFA international windows:
- * September–October 2026 (Matchdays 1 & 2)
- * November 2026 (Matchdays 3 & 4)
- * March 2027 (Matchdays 5 & 6)
This staggered schedule will test squad depth, technical stability, and administrative efficiency, which are areas that have historically influenced Nigeria’s performance as much as on-field quality.
East Africa Return and Logistical Implications
The 2027 tournament will mark AFCON’s return to the East African region for the first time since the 1976 Africa Cup of Nations.
For Nigeria, this introduces a different competitive environment—altitude variations, travel logistics across three host nations, and potentially unfamiliar playing conditions.
The tri-nation hosting model also means that teams must prepare for a geographically dispersed tournament, requiring early planning in scouting, acclimatisation, and logistics—areas where Nigeria has previously faced challenges in major competitions.
CAF is banking on the momentum generated by recent tournaments such as the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, both of which recorded significant commercial growth, increased sponsorship value, and expanded global broadcast audiences.
For Nigeria, one of Africa’s most marketable football brands, this growth presents both opportunity and pressure. Strong performances by the Super Eagles not only boost national pride but also reinforce Nigeria’s commercial relevance in African football’s evolving ecosystem.
While the May 19 draw will simply allocate opponents on paper, its implications run deeper. A favourable group could ease Nigeria’s passage, but recent AFCON qualifiers have shown that traditional hierarchies are narrowing, with emerging teams increasingly competitive.
For the Super Eagles, the road to PAMOJA 2027 is not just about qualification—it is about reasserting continental dominance in an era where African football is becoming more competitive, more commercial, and more globally visible.
The journey begins with the draw, but for Nigeria, expectations will stretch far beyond simply making the trip to East Africa.
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By Kunle Solaja.
The Confederation of African Football (Confederation of African Football) has formally unveiled the competition window for the landmark Africa Cup of Nations, tagged PAMOJA 2027, setting the stage for what is shaping up to be one of the most politically and structurally significant tournaments in the competition’s history.
Scheduled to kick off on Saturday, 19 June 2027, with the final fixed for Saturday, 17 July 2027, the tournament marks only the second time the AFCON will be staged in the June–July window. The first was the expanded 24-team edition in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, a shift originally designed to align African football with the European off-season calendar and improve player availability.
A Return to June–July: Progress or Persistent Constraint?
While the timing suggests continuity with the 2019 precedent, it also underscores a deeper tension within African football governance. CAF’s confirmation that the dates required approval from the FIFA Council, following a meeting in Vancouver, raises renewed questions about the confederation’s operational autonomy.
Historically, AFCON scheduling has been vulnerable to external pressures, particularly from European clubs and leagues reluctant to release African players mid-season. The June–July calendar was initially seen as a strategic compromise. However, the necessity of FIFA ratification in 2027 signals that CAF’s flagship tournament still operates within a framework heavily influenced by global football politics.
This development may reignite debate about whether CAF is charting an independent course or increasingly aligning its decisions with FIFA’s broader international calendar priorities.
Beyond scheduling, AFCON 2027 represents a structural leap. For the first time, three nations—Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda—will jointly host the tournament.
This tri-nation model, branded “PAMOJA” (Swahili for togetherness), is more than symbolic. It reflects CAF’s attempt to decentralise hosting rights, reduce infrastructural pressure on single nations, and expand the tournament’s commercial and cultural footprint.
With a projected reach of over 400 million people across East Africa, the tournament offers significant opportunities:
- Market expansion: Opening new commercial corridors in a region historically underrepresented in hosting major football events.
- Infrastructure development: Accelerated investment in stadiums, transport, and tourism across three countries.
- Regional integration: Football as a tool for political and economic cooperation within East Africa.
Yet, the model is not without risks. Multi-country hosting introduces logistical complexities—border coordination, security harmonisation, and infrastructure parity—that CAF has not previously managed at this scale.
Waiting for Key Decisions
CAF has deferred the announcement of which cities or countries will host the opening match and final, decisions that will carry both symbolic and economic weight. These choices could influence regional balance and perceptions of equity among the co-hosts.
AFCON 2027 sits at the intersection of ambition and dependency. On one hand, it embodies innovation—a new hosting model and a reaffirmed global calendar alignment. On the other, it highlights lingering structural challenges, particularly CAF’s reliance on FIFA’s approval mechanisms.
As preparations unfold, the success of PAMOJA 2027 will likely be judged not just by the quality of football on display, but by how effectively CAF navigates these competing forces—continental aspiration versus global integration.
In many ways, AFCON 2027 will be a test of whether African football can expand its horizons without compromising its independence.
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By Kunle Solaja.
Defending champions Morocco will take the first formal step in their title defence when the Confederation of African Football (CAF) conducts the draw for the AFCON PAMOJA 2027 qualifiers on May 19, 2026, two days before the 122nd anniversary of the founding of FIFA.
Fresh from their triumph at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, the Atlas Lions now face the challenge of sustaining continental dominance as they begin the journey toward the historic East African finals, to be co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
As reigning champions, Morocco enter the qualifiers with a target on their back. Their recent rise, bolstered by strong World Cup performances and a deep pool of Europe-based talents, has elevated expectations both at home and across the continent.
But history suggests that defending an AFCON title is rarely straightforward. The qualifying format, which includes 48 teams drawn into 12 groups of four, leaves little margin for complacency. Only the top two teams in each group will progress, meaning even established powers must navigate a potentially tricky six-match campaign.
The qualifiers will unfold across three FIFA international windows:
- * September–October 2026 (Matchdays 1 & 2)
- * November 2026 (Matchdays 3 & 4)
- * March 2027 (Matchdays 5 & 6)
For Morocco, maintaining squad cohesion across these windows will be crucial. With players spread across Europe’s top leagues, managing fatigue, travel, and club-country balance will test the technical crew’s planning and depth.
AFCON 2027 will mark the tournament’s return to East Africa for the first time since the 1976 Africa Cup of Nations. The unique three-country hosting model introduces new logistical variables—ranging from climate and altitude differences to travel across multiple venues.
For Morocco, whose recent success has been built on tactical discipline and structured preparation, early adaptation to these conditions could prove decisive in their title defence.
CAF’s recent tournaments—including the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and Morocco 2025—have recorded unprecedented commercial success, expanding the global reach of African football.
As defending champions, Morocco stand at the centre of this growth. Their performances will not only shape the competitive narrative of AFCON 2027 but also influence the tournament’s commercial appeal and global visibility.
While the May 19 draw will determine Morocco’s immediate opponents, the broader mission is clear: retain continental supremacy in an increasingly competitive African football landscape.
For the Atlas Lions, the road to PAMOJA 2027 is not merely about securing qualification—it is about proving that their recent triumph was not a peak, but the beginning of sustained dominance.
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