CAF re-opens bids for AFCON 2025 - www.asempanews.com

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has re-opened bids for the hosting rights of AFCON 2025 after they were taken away from original host Guinea.

Guinea were stripped of the competition following a meeting on Friday in Conakry between Guinea’s interim president, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, and the president of African football’s governing body, Patrice Motsepe, to discuss the withdrawal after the west African country, among the poorest of the continent, said it was not ready to host the 24-nation tournament.

In 2014, Guinea originally were awarded the hosting rights to the 2023 finals, along with Cameroon (2019) and Ivory Coast (2021).

But Cameroon were stripped of the right to host the 2019 tournament, as they were not ready, with Egypt filling in

Cameroon were then awarded the 2021 tournament, which eventually took place earlier this year after a one-year postponement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ivory Coast were due to host the next tournament in mid-2023 but that has been moved to early 2024 after concerns over the weather at that time of the year in the region.