Marruecos o Argelia, ¿quién organizará la Copa de África 2025?

The next Africa Cup of Nations is a year away. It will be in 2023 in Ivory Coast.

The last Africa Cup was delayed by COVID-19 and ended a few days ago with the victory of Senegal.

Guinea Conakry is the country in charge of organising the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. Some doubt that it will be able to organise it because of the lack of infrastructure needed to host a major sporting event.

In 2011 they inaugurated the Général Lansana Conté Stadium with a capacity of 50,000 seats and is the largest stadium in the country.

The 28 September Stadium located in the city of Conakri, the capital of the African country of Guinea, has a capacity of up to 35,000 people.

The stadium is named after 28 September 1958, the day on which Guinea voted NO in the French referendum, which ultimately led to Guinea's political independence on 2 October 1958. Guinea-Conakri (formerly French Guinea) was the first former French colony in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve political independence from France.

In an attempt to host the Africa Cup of Nations, proposals have been made to upgrade or rebuild the 28 September Stadium to a seated capacity of more than 70,000.

Hotel accommodation seems to be sufficient in the capital Conakri. Outside the capital, infrastructure is very limited, with a lack of roads and hotels.

The football event is three years away and, according to some media, everything is so far behind schedule that there is talk of abandoning the project.

It is here that those interested in hosting the Cup appear. Morocco is the first to show interest through the president of the Moroccan Football Federation, Fouzi Lekjaa.

In order to reform its bid for the 2030 World Cup, Morocco could use the 2025 event to showcase its infrastructures and its high organisational level.

It seems that CAF will opt for a Maghreb country to award the new host and Algeria also wants to opt to host the 2025 Cup, according to the wishes of Charaf-Eddine Amara, president of the Algerian Football Federation. 

Morocco has not hosted the tournament since 1988. The year Cameroon won and the Atlas Lions were eliminated by Algeria, their rivals and most belligerent neighbours.

Morocco's stadiums are fully capable of hosting matches of a high standard, as they proved in the qualifiers for both the Africa Cup of Nations and the current qualifiers for the World Cup in Qatar.

They have been full of spectators and have shown great organisation and behaviour from their fans.

The president of the Algerian federation held several meetings to analyse their participation and the poor results of the last Africa Cup in Cameroon. 

They have had a successful few years and their aim is to maintain the spirit that led them to win several titles in recent years.

They are also organising and planning for the two qualifiers for the World Cup in Qatar, which will be essential to qualify for the World Cup.

There was also talk of the 2023 event in Côte d'Ivoire and the possibility of organising the 2025 event in Algeria.

Yet another dispute between the two Maghreb countries bathed by the Mediterranean and a difficult decision by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

There are three years to go and Morocco is ahead in terms of infrastructure and organisational skills, but first we have to wait for Guinea Conakry and CAF to decide, after which the conflict could erupt.