The next Africa Cup of Nations, originally scheduled for June-July 2023 in Côte d’Ivoire, has been officially postponed to January 2024. This is the announcement made by the President of the African Football Confederation, Patrice Motsepe, on Sunday, July 3 in Rabat, Morocco.
Following a meeting of its Executive Committee in Rabat, the African Football Confederation announced the postponement of the next edition of the African Cup of Nations, originally scheduled from 23 June to 23 July 2023 in Côte d’Ivoire.
The reason given by the president of the CAF at his press conference: “We have been advised from all sides. Initially, people talked to us about climate change and told us that it might not rain at this time of year. Then we were told that we couldn’t take that risk, in the end (…) We don’t want to take the risk of having a competition under the flood. This would not be good for African football and its image.”
It should be noted that heavy rains have been falling in Côte d’Ivoire for several weeks, resulting in loss of life and material damage. There were also postponements of football matches from the local championship because of the weather.
As a reminder, the Can, organized by Cameroon, was also postponed several times, first at the request of the host country, then because of Covid, before finally being held in January and February 2022.
