Fresh Details Emerge As CAF Announces Dates For AFCON Draw

The Confederation of African Football have announced the draw for the 2025 AFCON finals will be held on January 27 in Rabat, Morocco.

The draw dates were announced following a CAF executive committee meeting held yesterday in the North African country.

The meeting was followed by a gathering of the 54 CAF member associations to discuss the development of football in Africa, including strengthening partnerships with governments, FIFA, other confederations, and the private sector. CAF president Patrice Motsepe revealed the opening match of the 2025 AFCON finals will be played on December 21, 2025, and the final on January 18, 2026.

The qualifiers for the AFCON tournament were concluded last month with 24 countries securing qualification for the tournament.

Zimbabwe qualified for the AFCON finals last month as runners-up of Group J of the qualifiers, won by Cameroon.

The Warriors will be making a sixth appearance at the tournament, having missed the previous edition due to a FIFA suspension.

However, the Warriors will be among the unseeded teams due to their low ranking. Zimbabwe are currently ranked 121 in the world, having dropped four places last month.

Along with neighbours Botswana, they are currently the two least ranked teams among the 24 nations that qualified for the 2025 AFCON finals.

The next rankings will be released on Thursday this week. The CAF committee also outlined schedules for key youth and women’s football tournaments, including the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations, which will be hosted by Morocco in March-April 2025, and the Under-20 edition set for Cote d’Ivoire in April-May. Other major competitions in the packed calendar, including the CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup, also had their final match dates confirmed, with decisive games planned for May and June 2025.

CAF Key dates:

U17 Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025: The opening match will be played on Sunday, 30 March 2025; the final match will be played on Saturday, 19 April 2025.

U20 Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2025 – The opening match will be played on Saturday, 26 April 2025; the final match will be played on Sunday, 18 May 2025.

CAF Confederation Cup 2024-25: Final, First Leg will be played Saturday, 17 May 2025; Final, Second Leg will be played Sunday, 25 May 2025

CAF Champions League 2024-25: Final, First Leg will be played Saturday, 24 May 2025; Final, Second Leg will be played Sunday, 1 June 2025

CAF Women’s Champions League 2025: The opening match will be played on Saturday, 8 November 2025; the final match will be played on Sunday, 23 November 2025.

Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025: The opening match will be played on Sunday, 21 December 2025; the final match will be played on Sunday, 18 January 2026.

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