AFCON 2025 draws see holders Ivory Coast lock horns with Cameroon after a glittering and grand ceremony in Rabat.
AFCON defending champions Ivory Coast have drawn Cameroon in the group stage of the tournament.
The Elephants, who will also play Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s Gabon and Mozambique, were selected in Group F during a lavish ceremony in Rabat.
The largest athletic event in Africa will take place from December 21 to January 18, 2026. Morocco, the hosts, will play Comoros in the first game.
Nigeria and Tunisia will compete in Group C after Nigeria fell to Ivory Coast in the Afcon 2023 final.
Tanzania and Uganda, two of the co-hosts of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, are competing against one another in the same group.
Three southern African teams—South Africa, Angola, and Zimbabwe—as well as Mohamed Salah’s Egypt will compete in Group B in other exciting regional matches.
Despite being embroiled in a civil conflict, Sudan managed to qualify for Afcon 2025 and will play Algeria in Group E.
Among the well-known football players present to help with the draw was Moroccan star Mustapha Hadji.
Serge Aurier, a former defender for Tottenham and Nottingham Forest who won two Afcon titles with Ivory Coast, was alongside him.
The captain of Nigeria’s 2013 Afcon winning squad, Joseph Yobo, was also present to choose the teams.
With his country placed in Group D with DR Congo, Senegal’s former Afcon-winning coach Aliou Cisse, who guided the Teranga Lions to glory in 2021, also provided assistance.
Six groups have been formed from the 24 teams. Each group’s winners and runners-up, together with the top four third-place teams, go to the knockout stage.
The local organising committee said just hours before Monday’s draw started that nine stadiums in Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir, Marrakech, Fes, and Tangier would host matches at Afcon 2025.
The final will take place in the Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah, one of four stadiums in Rabat, the capital.
Morocco, Spain, and Portugal are co-hosting the 2030 World Cup. They intend to construct a stadium with 115,000 seats on the outskirts of Casablanca by 2027 in the hopes of hosting the world final.