How will AFCON 2025 impact the Bundesliga?

What is AFCON 2025?

The Africa Cup of Nations – or AFCON for short – is the biennial international men’s football tournament organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to determine the champions of Africa. It is the equivalent of UEFA’s Euros in Europe, the AFC’s Asian Cup, CONCACAF’s Gold Cup and CONMEBOL’s Copa América.

First held in 1957, the 2025 AFCON will be the 35th edition of the tournament, which has been held in odd-numbered years since 2013 to avoid clashes with the FIFA World Cup.

When is AFCON 2025?

The AFCON had historically been played in January, but in 2017 CAF approved the decision to move the tournament to the northern hemisphere summer – in line with the European season. However, circumstances such as heat and the new FIFA Club World Cup have led to the 2021, 2023 and now 2025 editions still being played in the northern winter.

While often played from January through to February, this year’s competition will begin on 21 December and conclude on 18 January, partly due to the new UEFA Champions League schedule that sees the final two matchdays of the league phase played at the end of January.

Key dates:

Group stage: 21-31 December
Round of 16: 3-6 January 
Quarter-finals: 9-10 January
Semi-finals: 14 January
Third-place play-off: 17 January
Final: 18 January

Who is hosting AFCON 2025?

In 2019, Guinea were confirmed as hosts of the 2025 edition following a timetable shift in the wake of Cameroon losing their 2019 rights but being allowed to host the 2021 tournament instead. However, Guinea were then removed as hosts in 2022 due to a lack of progress in preparation. After a new bidding process, Morocco were named the new hosts in September 2023. The North African country will also be one of the three host nations of the 2030 World Cup, which will also feature centenary matches in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

There are nine venues set to host games:

• Adrar Stadium, Agadir (45,000)
• Stade Mohammed V, Casablanca (45,000)
• Fez Stadium, Fez (45,000)
• Marrakesh Stadium, Marrakesh (45,000)
• Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat (68,700) – opening match and final
• Moulay Hassan Stadium, Rabat (22,000)
• Rabat Olympic Stadium, Rabat (21,000)
• Al Barid Stadium, Rabat (18,000)
• Ibn Batouta Stadium, Tangier (75,000)

Who will compete at AFCON 2025?

The Cup of Nations is contested by African national teams associated with CAF, with each country only able to select players that are born there or are otherwise eligible through family or citizenship grounds to represent them. 

As of the 2019 edition, AFCON was expanded from 16 to 24 teams. A total of 52 teams entered qualifying, which began in March 2024 and ended in November that year, consisting of a preliminary round for the eight lowest ranked teams followed by a group stage (12 groups of four teams), whereby the top two teams in each section qualified for the finals tournament.

As hosts, Morocco had already qualified automatically but still competed in qualifying Group B, winning all six of their games. All 24 qualified teams this year have previously competed at the Cup of Nations, including 12 former champions.

What is the format?

Like most international football tournaments, AFCON begins with a single round robin group stage. With 24 teams, that means six groups of four.

The top two teams in each section progress to the round of 16, along with the four best third-placed teams. The tournament then continues in a knockout format through the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final/third-place play-off, with each match going into extra time and a penalty shootout, if required to determine a winner.

The draw for the main tournament was made on 27 January 2025 in Rabat.

Group A: Morocco (hosts), Mali, Zambia, Comoros

Group B: Egypt, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe

Group C: Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda, Tanzania

Group D: Senegal, DR Congo, Benin, Botswana

Group E: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan

Group F: Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Gabon, Mozambique

Watch: Ex-Dortmund striker Sébastien Haller crowned his cancer comeback with AFCON glory

Which Bundesliga stars will be in action at AFCON 2025?

The following Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2-based players are eligible for qualified nations. 

Players in bold have been named in the final squad. Nations in italics have not yet announced their tournament squads yet. 

*denotes preliminary squad

Algeria: Mohamed Amoura (Wolfsburg), Ramy Bensebaini (Borussia Dortmund), Badredine Bouanani (VfB Stuttgart), Farès Chaïbi (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ibrahim Maza (Bayer Leverkusen)

Benin: Andréas Hountondji* (St. Pauli)

Burkina Faso: Cyriaque Irié (Freiburg), Edmond Tapsoba (Bayer Leverkusen), Sacha Bansé (Greuther Fürth)

Watch: The best of Algeria's Maza

Cameroon: Christian Kofane (Bayer Leverkusen), Leon Bell Bell (Eintracht Braunschweig), Nathan Ngoumou (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Patrick Nkoa (Borussia Mönchengladbach)

Comoros: Warmed Omari (Hamburg)

DR Congo: Samuel Essende (Augsburg), Silas Katompa Mvumpa (VfB Stuttgart)

Ivory Coast: Yan Diomande (RB Leipzig), Bazoumana Touré (Hoffenheim), Silas Gnaka (Magdeburg)

Watch: The best of Diomande at Leipzig

Mali: Amadou Haidara (RB Leipzig), Ibrahima Sissoko (Bochum), Ibrahima Cissé (Schalke), Ibrahim Sissoko (Bochum), Moussa Sylla (Schalke)

Morocco: Eliesse Ben Seghir (Bayer Leverkusen), Bilal El Khannouss (VfB Stuttgart), Hamza Anhari (Fortuna Düsseldorf), Ayoub Chaikhoun (Nuremberg), Anouar El Azzouzi (Fortuna Düsseldorf)

Watch: The best of Morocco's El Khannouss at Stuttgart

Nigeria: Felix Agu* (Werder Bremen), Victor Boniface* (Werder Bremen), Nathan Tella* (Bayer Leverkusen), Dickson Abiama (Kaiserslautern), Kevin Akpoguma (Hoffenheim), Afeez Aremu (Kaiserslautern), Precious Benjamin (Hoffenheim), Jordan Torunarigha (Hamburg)

Watch: The best of Nigeria's Boniface in the Bundesliga

Senegal: Pape Demba Diop (Nuremberg), Christian Gomis (Schalke), Nicolas Jackson (Bayern Munich)

South Africa: Ime Okon* (Hannover)

Tunisia: Ismaël Gharbi (Augsburg), Elias Saad (Augsburg), Ellyes Skhiri (Eintracht Frankfurt), Louey Ben Farhat (Karlsruhe), Mohamed Dräger (Eintracht Braunschweig)

Zambia: Lubambo Musonda (Magdeburg)

Watch: The best of Bayern's Jackson

Will Bundesliga players miss any games?

How many games players could miss depends on how far their team progresses in the tournament.

Given the first game is on Sunday, 21 December, which coincides with Matchday 15 (19-21 December) in the Bundesliga, it can be assumed that any players called up to compete will miss that round of fixtures. There are no midweek games involving German teams in the week leading up to the start.

After Matchday 15, the Bundesliga pauses for its winter break, which reduces the impact of absences compared to England’s Premier League, for example. Domestic action then resumes on Friday, 9 January, the start of the AFCON quarter-finals. Therefore, any players eliminated in the group stage and maybe also the round of 16 – depending on the logistics of returning to Germany – will be available again for their clubs in time for the campaign’s resumption.

Any players reaching the final will therefore miss up to four games, given Matchday 17 is a midweek round (13-15 January) before Matchday 18 (16-18 January) on the weekend of the third-place play-off and final. Matchday 7 in the Champions League (20-21 January) begins two days after the final, making involvement there also unlikely.

Bundesliga 2 participants play their final game of 2025 on Matchday 17 (19-21 December) before returning on 16-18 January.

Watch: The best of Algeria's Bensebaini in the Bundesliga

AFCON history

A total of 15 countries have won the Africa Cup of Nations. The most successful is Egypt with seven titles, most recently in 2010. They last reached the final in 2021.

Ivory Coast are the defending champions after winning as hosts in 2023, beating three-time winners Nigeria 2-1 in the final. Hosts Morocco won their only title in 1976.

AFCON winners: Egypt (7), Cameroon (5), Ghana (4), Nigeria and Ivory Coast (both 3), Algeria and DR Congo (both 2), Zambia, Tunisia, Sudan, Senegal, South Africa, Ethiopia, Morocco and Congo (all 1).

Who are the favourites to win?

Morocco’s hopes of another home triumph will be driven by current Paris Saint-Germain and former Borussia Dortmund full-back Achraf Hakimi, and whether he’s fit after his injury sustained against Bayern Munich, but they also have some exciting Bundesliga talent in El Khannouss and Ben Seghir.

Watch: Edmond Tapsoba's Bundesliga best bits

Eyes will obviously be on Egypt and whether Mohammed Salah can lead them to a record eighth title, while Senegal are often contenders with ex-Bayern man Sadio Mané and current Munich forward Jackson.

Nigeria can never be ruled out with a squad including Boniface, Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman. Defending champions Ivory Coast are also not short on talent, such as Leipzig’s Diomande and Amad Diallo of Manchester United.