The African Cup of Nations 2025 will be hosted by Morocco, and that will be their second hosting of this tournament since 1988. Morocco was supposedly close to being a host at the 2015 edition of AFCON but was rescheduled due to fears of the Ebola virus, so the country withdrew their candidacy.
The tournament (AFCON) will take place from Sunday, 21 December 2025 until 18 January 2026, and it will be the first time that the tournament is played during the Christmas and New Year period.
The AFCON proportions
The tournament will be played by the 24 best national teams from the African continent who qualified for the tournament.
The national teams are divided into six groups with four teams. From each of these groups, the first two teams advance further in the competition. Meanwhile, a group of the third-placed teams will be formed, and from this group, the top four of the six third-placed teams will pass into the elimination stage of AFCON.
This tournament is the strongest national competition in Africa and is on the verge of many Premier League stars who are leaving their club sides and travelling with their national teams to help their nations compete at the tournament.
Ivory Coast is the current champion of Africa and the defending champion
Some Premier League stars will have a chance to compete in the tournament for the opportunity to win AFCON and become the Champions of Africa.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Leeds United, and Newcastle United are all without players absent from this tournament.
They do not have players on national duty for this commitment. So these teams will be fresh, free from national duty obligations, and will be able to produce football with all their players under contract present and available during of ACON being played in December and January.
So as we said, Arsenal, Chelsea, Aston Villa, and Leeds United will have depth in the squad and will gain a certain advantage during Christmas and New Year time in the Premier League, while other teams will struggle to replace their players.
Many Premier League clubs will be without their star and very important players. So it will be an option for some moves on the transfer market concerning potentially replacing some important players and gaining a more competitive squad in crucial positions.
It is a crucial time of the season, and the absence of many important players can make many teams lose important points and lose a team’s construction during the important period in December in January. The team with a good form and decent results in the Premier League can easily get into a losing streak, and conceding much can cost their ambitions cruelly.
Sunderland is in the worst position concerning AFCON. They will be without many important players and regular starters who will play in Morocco. They will have six players travelling to AFCON. Sunderland will be without players like Noah Sadiki, Bertrand Traoré, and Reinildo.
Some transfer activities may be considered by Sunderland officials since the club has lost starting sides and very important players of Le Bris, and could lack some efficiency and compactness and also creativity,.
Many crucial matches in the Premier League are coming, and no manager is satisfied with losing three or four important players in the league for a long period of time.
Manchester United, just like Fulham and Burnley, have three African stars looking to participate in the tournament. Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo will leave an important space in Manchester United’s attacking line. Two important starting players from Manchester United will be missed.
Ruben Amorim will have to find replacements and explore more offensive options. They will be hard to replace and will open space for Benjamin Šeško, Zirkzee, and playing together, and another option.
Noussair Mazraoui will be playing in AFCON, but did not have an important role this season in United, as he did last season. Amorim was looking for different options at wing wing-back position, choosing Dalot over Mazraoui.
Ruben Amorim will have to find good replacements for these two, and it will be interesting to see a different attacking line at Manchester United in the weeks that follow. Mason Mount may become a regular starter on the left wing position, while we may watch Šeško and Zirkzee as the prime attacking options for Manchester United.
Diallo’s energy, pace, and agility will be highly missed by the club.
Tottenham and Manchester City both have two departures, but Tottenham will not miss Yves Bissouma — the Mali international will not play since his team has not qualified. He previously played in AFCON for the Ivory Coast before switching to the Mali national team.
On the other side, Pape Matar Sarr will leave a gap in Spurs’ midfield.
Manchester City will feel the situation surrounding AFCN strongly, since the absence of Algeria’s Rayan Aït-Nouri, who has not played much for City since joining from Wolves, and was injured for a long time. Egypt’s Omar Marmoush will leave Manchester City and leaving them with one fewer attacking option.
Liverpool will just stay without Mohamed Salah, who will travel to play for Egypt. It will be interesting to see Salah performing for Egypt in Morocco. It will catch the interest of many football fans. His relationship with Liverpool manager Arne Slot has been in focus in the past month.
Brighton will miss Carlos Baleba, who will represent Cameroon at AFCON, while Brentford will miss Onyeka and Ouattara, who will play for Nigeria and Burkina Faso.
You can see the full list of players from the Premier League who are participating in the tournament, as well as players we have not mentioned in the analysis.
| Club | Players Competing at AFCON |
|---|---|
| Arsenal | — |
| Aston Villa | Evann Guessand (Ivory Coast) |
| Bournemouth | — |
| Brentford | Dango Ouattara (Burkina Faso), Frank Onyeka (Nigeria) |
| Brighton & Hove Albion | Carlos Baleba (Cameroon) |
| Burnley | Axel Tuanzebe (DR Congo), Lyle Foster (South Africa), Hannibal Mejbri (Tunisia) |
| Chelsea | — |
| Crystal Palace | Ismaïla Sarr (Senegal) |
| Everton | Idrissa Gueye (Senegal), Iliman Ndiaye (Senegal) |
| Fulham | Calvin Bassey (Nigeria), Alex Iwobi (Nigeria), Samuel Chukwueze (Nigeria) |
| Leeds United | — |
| Liverpool | Mohamed Salah (Egypt) |
| Manchester City | Rayan Aït-Nouri (Algeria), Omar Marmoush (Egypt) |
| Manchester United | Bryan Mbeumo (Cameroon), Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast), Noussair Mazraoui (Morocco) |
| Newcastle United | — |
| Nottingham Forest | Willy Boly (Ivory Coast), Ibrahim Sangaré (Ivory Coast) |
| Sunderland | Bertrand Traoré (Burkina Faso), Arthur Masuaka (DR Congo), Noah Sadiki (DR Congo), Chemsdine Talbi (Morocco), Reinildo (Mozambique), Habib Diarra (Senegal) |
| Tottenham Hotspur | Yves Bissouma (Mali), Pape Matar Sarr (Senegal) |
| West Ham United | Aaron Wan-Bissaka (DR Congo), El Hadji Malick Diouf (Senegal) |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers | Emmanuel Agbadou (Ivory Coast), Tawanda Chirewa (Zimbabwe) |
Previously, he was seen as an important player for DR Congo at AFCON and should be playing an important role in his national team of DR Congo, but the injury has kept him in England, away from the field in Morocco.
Sunderland could have had a seventh player at AFCON, but Simon Adingra was omitted from the Ivory Coast travelling party.
Nigeria have left out Nottingham Forest right-back Ola Aina, who has been seen as an important player for the team but has not recovered from injury, and Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Tolu Arokodare is also absent from the Nigerian national team due to injury.
Ghana’s surprise failure to qualify for the tournament is good news for Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth fans. This way, Bournemouth and Premier League star Antoine Semenyo and Tottenham forward Mohammed Kudus will not be competing at the tournament and will fight a hard fight in the Premier League for their clubs.
Gambia were also unable to qualify, meaning Yankuba Minteh is available for Brighton & Hove Albion.
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