AFCON 2019: Guinea Agrees To Host 2025 Africa Cup of Nations

While the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is yet to finalize a host for Afcon 2019, its president Ahmad Ahmad on Monday confirmed that Guinea has accepted to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon). Ahmad announced the news after meeting with Guinean President Alpha Conde in Conakry on Sunday. The meeting was also attended by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

“I am delighted with this change in the organization of the calendar that will see the Nations Cup take place in Guinea in 2025 and I am proud that the president of Guinea, Alpha Conde, has himself accepted,” the CAF President told reporters, according to BBC.

Notably, back in 2014, CAF handed Afcon hosting rights to Cameroon for the year 2019, Ivory Coast for 2021 and Guinea for 2023. But, now, Ahmad has confirmed that Cameroon will host the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 2021 that was originally scheduled to be staged in Ivory Coast.  Cameroon was stripped of hosting this year’s edition in November 2018.

The CAF canceled Cameroon as the host of Afcon 2019 due to security concerns and severe delays in building stadiums. Both Egypt and South Africa have submitted formal bids to hosts for this year’s tournament. Ivory Coast will now host the tournament in 2023.

The CAF is expected to announce which of the two countries has won the right to host the tournament on Tuesday, January 8. Its executive committee will meet in Senegal to decide on a host for this year’s tournament. The successful bidder for this year’s finals will have just six months to prepare for the 24-team finals, which are scheduled to run between 15 June and 13 July. The announcement will be made in the Senegalese capital Dakar, which will host Caf’s annual awards ceremony.

Stay tuned to TheChiefObserver for more updates on Afcon 2019.