Dates for next AFCON in Morocco still unclear

Talk at the moment is that the continental tournament in North Africa will be played in the summer there, meaning June and July next year similar to how it was scheduled for the competition in Egypt 2019.

This would also suit European based players as their seasons would also have concluded.

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"I can tell you the AFCON in Morocco is gonna be excellent. It's gonna be immensely successful, I'll talk more about it after Cote d’Ivoire. The focus for all of us now is Cote d’Ivoire. There are dates, I was with the president of FIFA yesterday and various others, there's a lot of competing events at the same time," Motsepe said.

Motsepe did not want to confirm the dates just yet as he chose to rather be cautious in case things change, although unlikely.

"But we are confident that we will identify, it is indeed going to be around that time. I don't wanna make announcements because there's a degree of comfort in terms of what the dates look like but we've gotta accommodate various other competing competitions," Motsepe added.

With the AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire breaking records for television rights and the number of sponsors, Morocco will be under pressure to maintain the bar or do better.

The CAF president believes that is possible.

"The message for the people of Morocco, for the people of North Africa, for the people of Africa is the AFCON next year is gonna be an immense success and we will make further announcements in due course."