The Executive Council of Africa’s football governing has announced that the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament has been moved to January and February 2024.
This was announced by the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Dr Patrice Motsepe after they agreed on On Sunday, July 3, 2022 to postpone the tournament to be hosted by Ivory Coast to 2024.
The initial plan was for Ivory Coast to host the AFCON in 2023 June and July, but concerns over the rainy season in the West African country was the main reason the CAF decided to postpone the showpiece.
Serious floods have hit the West African country in recent months, alerting CAF to postpone the tournament to January and February 2024, when there is less likelihood of downpours.
“The 2023 AFCON will now be played between January and February 2024,” Mostepe told the media during a press conference in Rabat.
“This is one of the issues we discussed during our congress meeting here in Morocco and the official dates will be communicated later.
“It is after deliberations we came into the decision, we have partners and even though we make decisions, it is out of respect that we take the advice we are getting that we cannot take a risk [to host the tournament] and so that is why we have made the necessary announcement today [Sunday].
“It is not good for African football to play a tournament that can be washed out, it is not good for Africa and the continent at large and so we have to postpone it,” he explained.
The 2023 AFCON qualifiers have already begun, with two group matches taking place in June 2022.
The qualifiers will continue in September, with the qualification round set to end in March 2023.
Senegal won the last edition of the AFCON tournament which was hosted in Cameroon earlier this year, after they beat Egypt on penalties to grab their first African cup.
On February 7, 2022, Senegal declared a national holiday to celebrate the trophy in a grand style.
