AFRICA CUP 2025
21. December 2025 - 18. January 2026
History
Founded: 1957
Region: Africa (CAF)
Number of teams: 24
Most successful team: Egypt (7x titles)
Champion 2025: Morocco / Senegal stripped of title
The 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa (CAF), took place in Morocco in 2025.
Sanctioned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), it was first held in 1957.
Since 1968, it has been held every two years.
The titleholders at the time of the FIFA Confederations Cup qualified for that competition.
In 1957, there were only three participating nations: Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. South Africa was to have competed but was disqualified due to the apartheid policies of the government then in power.
Since then, the tournament has grown in size, to the extent that it has become necessary to hold a qualifying tournament.
The number of participants in the final tournament reached 16 in 1998. In July 2017, two changes were proposed: moving the competition from January to the Northern Hemisphere summer, and increasing the number of teams from 16 to 24, effective from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
On 20 July, the CAF Executive Commission approved these proposals at a meeting in Rabat, Morocco.
The format has remained unchanged since then, with 24 teams divided into six groups of four. The top two teams in each group, along with the four best runners-up, advance to the knockout stage.
Egypt is the most successful nation in the tournament's history, having won the Africa Cup of Nations a record seven times. Ghana and Cameroon have each won the tournament four times.