Corridor noise in recent weeks, the announcement is about to be formalized. The withdrawal of the CAN 2025 organization should be formalized at the end of the CAF Executive Committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow in Algiers on the sidelines of the CHAN 2023 draw.
Guinea will not organize the 35th edition of the African Cup of Nations. Awarded in 2014 to Guinea, the organization of the CAN in Guinea will ultimately not take place in Guinea following the accumulated delay in the construction of the various infrastructures required by CAF for such a competition. Evoked with insistence in recent months, the withdrawal of CAN 2025 from Guinea seemed inevitable despite the recent declarations of Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya (at the head of the country since September 2021) who erected this CAN at home as a national priority.
Among the factors that could explain this withdrawal, the question of the allocation of a CAN initially to 16 teams when it was allocated to Guinea is often mentioned by stakeholders. In 2014, CAF then decided to award the organization of CAN 2019, 2021, and 2023 to Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea in a sixteen-team format. Meanwhile, the continental body formalized the transition to 24 teams from the 2019 edition in the wake of the decision taken by UEFA for Euro 2016. Thus, the situation experienced by Guinea is similar to that experienced by Cameroon, which saw the edition scheduled for 2019 be withdrawn in favor of Egypt. Following the recent visit of CAF inspectors to Guinea, the conclusions drawn against him were legion, formalizing internally the country’s inability to organize a CAN.
This Wednesday, September 30, CAF President Patrice Motsepe informed the Guinean authorities of the decision taken by CAF following the latest inspection reports drawn up on site. At a press conference, Motsepe said:For CAN 2025, the decision was made not to continue with Guinea because the infrastructure, despite the great effort made by the authorities, is not up to the level for the competition to take place there. It has been decided to reopen the call for applications for CAN 2025».
Behind the scenes, the many countries interested in organizing the 2025 edition have already sharpened their arguments to convince the African body. Among the countries interested, we can mention in particular Morocco, South Africa and Algeria, whose organization of CHAN 2023 will serve as a full-scale test but also as a showcase for CAF. Thus, the call for candidates could be formalized during the meeting of the Executive Committee scheduled for tomorrow in Algiers.
a day without.
we will not give up, despite the harshness of the test. #can2025 #Guinea pic.twitter.com/S8BCxx1JSe— sega diallo (@segadiallo) September 30, 2022
DZfoot