Table of Contents
- The African Nations Championship is one of the tournaments football fans from Africa are looking forward to this year
- The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced in late January that the event will take place for a period of one month and will be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania
- The draw for CHAN 2025 took place in January at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in a star-studded ceremony that was attended by Kenya’s McDonald Mariga, Uganda’s Hassan Wasswa and Tanzania’s Mrisho Ngasa
The African Nations Championship, CHAN 2025, is one of the tournaments football fans from Africa are looking forward to this year. The event, which is organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), was initially scheduled to kick off this month but was pushed forward to August.
CAF announced in late January that the event will take place for a period of one month and will be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The tournament features only players who ply their trade in the domestic leagues of their respective countries. This concept is not only unique to Africa but significant in the African football calendar as it allows countries to showcase the quality of their homegrown stars.
CHAN Trophy. Photo/ Morocco World News.
When Will CHAN 2025 Be Held?
As already indicated, this year’s African Nations Championship was initially scheduled to take place in February. However, CAF pushed the highly anticipate event to August 2025, with the organization’s technical experts stating that the additional time is necessary to ensure all stadiums meet the required standards.
The event will kick off on 2nd and the final will be played on 30th. Although most stadiums are complete and ready for matches, CAF believes the extra time provided will ensure training field and other necessary infrastructure are upgraded so that the host nations deliver a world-class event.
“I am confident that the ongoing upgrades will provide world-class facilities by August 2025.” CAF President Dr. Patrice Motsepe stated a few days ago, as per Kenya News Agency, while appreciating the efforts of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Kenyan president William Samoeri Ruto and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are the hosts for this year’s African Nations Championship. Photo/ BBC.
Which Teams Have Qualified For CHAN?
As of the time of writing, 17 countries have booked their spots in the upcoming CHAN 2025 event. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were the first countries to book their slots for being the host nations and were joined by 16 other nations after the qualifiers.
However, Libya and Tunisia decided to withdraw from the tournament in order to avoid disrupting their domestic leagues due to absence of players. This means that a new qualifying campaign will take place to fill the slots left. According to Citizen Digital, the countries which will compete in the qualifiers are Algeria, Comoros, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi and South Africa.
The draw for the African Nations Championship took place in January at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in a star-studded ceremony that was attended by Kenya’s McDonald Mariga, Uganda’s Hassan Wasswa and Tanzania’s Mrisho Ngasa.
Below are the groups for the highly anticipated event:
GROUP A: Angola, DR Congo, Kenya, Morocco, Zambia
GROUP B: Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Madagascar, Mauritania, Tanzania
GROUP C: Guinea, Niger, Uganda, Qualifier 1, Qualifier 2
GROUP D: Congo, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan
Who Is Hosting CHAN?
Kenya has been busy upgrading stadiums in the past few months in preparation for the highly anticipated CHAN tournament. Photo/ Capital News.
The African Nations Championship will be hosted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. This marks the second time that the tournament is played in East Africa as Rwanda previously hosted the event in 2016.
Senegal are the defending champions and have lifted the trophy alongside Libya, Morocco, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tunisia. Morocco and DRC have won the prestigious title two times and are among the favourites to triumph in East Africa this year.
