CAN CÔTE D’IVOIRE 2023: The competition postponed to 2024 by CAF?

The question has been on everyone’s lips for a few hours. Scheduled for June 2023 in Ivory Coast, the African Cup of Nations could again be postponed for a year by the Confederation of African Football. And this time, this postponement has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic.

A few days after Senegal’s victory in the final of the 33rd edition of the CAN in Cameroon, the Confederation of African Football set sail for Côte d’Ivoire, to gauge the level of preparation for the next edition. If on the ground, the construction work of the stadiums is progressing well according to the report of the secretary general Véron Monsengo-Omba, a doubt persists on its holding on the date indicated (June 2023).

According to our colleagues from Kick442, the Confederation of African Football is seriously considering postponing the final phase of the 34th edition of the AFCON by one year. This, due to an overloaded and rearranged FIFA calendar given the 2022 World Cup in Qatar unusually positioned from November to December 2022. A move that is bound to disrupt the African calendar. The CAN 2023 qualifications will have a hard time ending before June 2023 if we take into account the preliminaries which will be played from March 2022, then the start of the second round in April or May, when we know also that the European championships will resume quite early in this period due to the delay of the World Cup. Then there will be the participation of African nations in the World Cup in Qatar. With all that, complicated to complete the African calendar.

All the conditions therefore seem to be met for a postponement to 2024. But in what period? January 2024 or June 2024? Knowing that Euro 2024 is scheduled for June-July. CAF and COCAN Côte d’Ivoire should decide in the coming days.