Guinea loses hosting rights to 2025 Africa Cup of Nations

Guinea has been stripped of hosting rights to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations as its infrastructure and facilities have been deemed not up to the standard required to stage the football tournament.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) made the announcement on Saturday, stating that Guinea’s infrastructure and facilities are “not ready” to host the event.

CAF president Patrice Motsepe visited the country to discuss the possibility of Guinea bidding for other tournaments alongside nearby countries. The bidding process for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations has been reopened.

Motsepe said: “I visited Guinea today out of respect to the people of Guinea to discuss CAF’s willingness to advise and work together with the football stakeholders to construct and build football infrastructure and facilities in this country.

“This will enable Guinea to bid with other competing nations for the African Nations Championships (CHAN) which will take place after the CHAN to be hosted by Algeria in 2023, in the light of the decision by CAF not to proceed with the TotalEnergies AFCON 2025 in Guinea.”

The CHAN is a national team tournament contested only by players who compete in their own domestic league.

Guinea was originally awarded hosting rights to the 2023 Cup of Nations before being asked to stage the 2025 edition. Guinea has been under military rule since last year and there had been doubts over security surrounding the Cup of Nations.

Morocco and Algeria are considering separate bids to host the tournament following CAF’s decision to strip the event from Guinea. Morocco hosted the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations earlier this year and last staged the men’s event in 1988.

Earlier this year, CAF announced that the 2023 Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast would be pushed back to January and February 2024 due to the country’s rainy season in June and July.

The announcement came amid deadly floods and landslides in the country, with the capital city of Abidjan hit particularly hard by the adverse weather conditions.

The most recent Cup of Nations was held in January and February in Cameroon. That tournament had originally been due to take place last summer but it was postponed due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.