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Join on Telegram Rabat – The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has confirmed January 13 as the kick off date of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Africa’s biggest football event.
The competition will take place in Cote d’Ivoire, with the opening game scheduled on Saturday, January 13, 2024 at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Ebimpe, Abidjan.
The tournament will convene the African continent’s best footballing nations, six of which have so far secured their qualification to the continental tournament.
Already qualified are Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, and Senegal.
Morocco’s Atlas Lions secured their qualification last week, after South Africa and Liberia tied 2-2. The Atlas Lions are leading Group K, with six points after two wins against Liberia and South Africa
Morocco’s qualification with far fewer points than the other qualified teams was also courtesy of Zimbabwe’s suspension by FIFA due to the Zimbabwean government’s interference in the affairs of the country’s football league.
CAF expressed excitement at the approaching tournament, stressing that the road to Cote d’Ivoire is “gradually taking shape as the world gears up for Africa’s biggest football spectacle.”
The final draw for the upcoming AFCON will take place in September 2023, CAF General Secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba said.
Many are bidding on Morocco’s Atlas Lions as the favorite to win or to at least reach the competition’s final in 2024.
Morocco is currently the top African team in the FIFA rankings, and the Atlas Lions’ latest displays in friendly games against Brazil and Peru have reinforced the notion that the Moroccan team is indeed eager to build on their glorious World Cup journey in Qatar to finally win Morocco a second major trophy since the 1976 AFCON.
“I told my players that we cannot be kings of the world before being kings of our continent,” Morocco’s head coach Walid Regragui said recently.
