Wayne Lumbasi
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has insisted that Guinea will host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and rejected knowledge of any bid from Nigeria to co-host the event.
Amaju Pinnick, the president of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), was quoted saying that Nigeria had submitted an application to co-host the 2025 AFCON, citing the political climate in Guinea, which has been governed by the military since a coup last year.
A senior CAF official maintained that neither his organization nor Guinean football officials discussed moving the event elsewhere as certain media stories have suggested.
“The host for the 2025 tournament remains Guinea and that has not changed,” he told BBC Sport Africa.
“We’ve not discussed anything about a replacement or received any communication from Guinea about the inability to host. At this very moment, everything is on track for Guinea to host and there is no reason to suggest otherwise.”
The 2021 finals in Cameroon were delayed by six months until January in February this year. In order to avoid the rainy season, it was also decided that the 2023 tournament in Ivory Coast would now take place in early 2024.
Nigeria last hosted AFCON in 2000 when they co-hosted with Ghana.
