The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) will take place between December and January, it has been confirmed.

Morocco will play host to the tournament that will begin on December 21, 2025 and run until January 18, 2026.

The Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) executive committee (Exco) confirmed the scheduling in a release on Friday.

Caf had previously committed to stage its flagship men’s tournament at the end of the European club season, in a June-July slot, but those dates next year will clash with Fifa’s inaugural 32-team Club World Cup.

It remains to be seen whether Europe’s top clubs will agree to release players for the 2025 Nations Cup, with both the club and international calendars increasingly congested.

The 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico in June and July that year, with nine African sides guaranteed to be at the expanded 48-team tournament.

Under the world governing body’s rules on the release of players it appears clubs are within their rights to block players going to either the Nations Cup or the World Cup later in 2026.

“It is not compulsory to release the same player for more than one “A” representative team final competition per year,” Fifa’s regulations on the status and transfer of players state.

Earlier this month the Professional Footballers’ Association joined a legal action against Fifa over the “overloaded and unworkable” football calendar, including the creation of the expanded Club World Cup.