AFCON (Africa Cup of Nations) 2025 --- Preview

AFCON returns with a point to prove, and we’re opening the playbook on everything that will shape the tournament in Morocco. From media narratives to matchday realities, we break down why this competition is more than a mid-season inconvenience and how it embodies continental pride, history, and elite football. The timing debate and player-release drama make headlines, but the real story is the football itself—and the communities it represents.

We start with the host: Morocco. Fresh off a World Cup semi-final run and backed by heavy investment in stadiums across Rabat, Casablanca, Tangier, Marrakesh, Agadir, and Fez, Morocco have built a platform worthy of champions. We examine the format, the venues, and the stakes of a tournament that doubles as a rehearsal for the 2030 World Cup. Then we move to the contenders: Senegal’s championship pedigree with Sadio Mané, Egypt’s hunger with Mohamed Salah, Nigeria’s attacking depth, and Côte d’Ivoire’s champion resilience. We also flag dangerous outsiders—Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, South Africa—who can tilt the bracket with one ruthless performance.

Our group-by-group guide highlights the tactical hinges that decide who advances: set pieces, midfield control, rotations, and game-state management under pressure. We call the likely qualifiers, the third-place scrambles that matter, and the match-ups that could define the knockouts. Throughout, we challenge the old club-first narrative, spotlighting AFCON as a stage where players reconnect with their roots and fans witness a football culture that doesn’t need European validation to be world-class. Our final call? Morocco have the form, the squad, and the home surge to go all the way.

If you enjoy smart football talk with an African lens, follow and share the show. Subscribe on YouTube or Spotify, leave a review to help others find us, and tell us your pick for champions—who lifts the trophy and why?

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Listener Support
• 1:06 Subscriptions, Donations, And Services
• 2:51 Setting The AFCON Context
• 3:14 European Disrespect Explained
• 5:00 Club Vs Country Tensions
• 6:30 Media Bias And Colonial Mindset
• 9:13 Reframing The Narrative
• 9:53 Tournament Overview And Schedule
• 11:36 Format, Venues, And Investments
• 12:36 Favourites And Why They Lead
• 15:20 Dark Horses To Watch
• 18:23 Group A To C Predictions
• 20:11 Group D To F Predictions
• 22:03 Final Pick: Morocco To Win
• 24:28 How To Watch And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Good evening and welcome to this week's edition of Africa in Focus with myself Kwame, Ghanaian writer, broadcaster, entrepreneur, podcaster, and journalist. And this week's edition of Africa in Focus is a special. We're previewing the Africa Cup of Nations that kicks off on Sunday, the 21st of December. Alright, so before we start the show, just to make you aware that if you like what you hear, appreciate to your friends, uh your family, your social media networks, subscribe to Ghana African Focus on YouTube, subscribe to Ghana African Folks on Spotify. Look out for Ghana African Folks on Spotify. Hit the notification bell. Hit the notification bell. Meaning that every time we upload a podcast, YouTube will notify you. Okay, so uh um please subscribe. We've had some great growth, particularly on Spotify this year, and I'll share those of you uh probably on your show next week. So uh yeah, so again, if you want to donate to a show, uh you can donate a little as free with us a month. Uh, you can do that as a month subscription or as a one-off payment, and we welcome any donations that you have uh to in order to help us to continue producing some fantastic content from Ghana and from the African content. I'm sure you've agreed this year. You know, we've you know brought you some really, really great shows coming from Ghana and the African content. And in 2026, we're going to be even bigger and better, uh, and we'll explain more towards the end of the year. So please donate if you want to to Ghana African Focus, and I'll leave the link where you can donate on the finest of the show. All right, and if you still want to do business in Ghana, you know, look for land, property, look at different parts and opportunities of doing business in Ghana, then I do have 10 years of experience in Ghana. I have property of investment, many investments in Ghana. We can help you by you know taking in the package that seats you need at once. So if you want to book a concession with myself, uh, you can drop me a quick email and uh I'll leave again the email on the funniest to the show. And we can book you for uh a one-hour session for 30 US dollars or a half-hour briefing for 20 US dollars, and we can give you some tips and sign pages to if necessary to any organizations that we feel can help you with your journey to relocate to Ghana. Okay, so let's get into the podcast looking or previewing the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations, that is Africa's showpiece uh tournament, uh, aligns with the you know um European Championships in Europe and also the uh South American equivalent of the Afghan. So the AFCON, which is African Cup of Nations, starts on Sunday and it's been hosted in Morocco, and Morocco played the opening game alongside Camoros. But we'll come on to that in a bit more detail. But I just wanted to tell you, you know, about you know the typical uh narrative that is spawned by European journalists, particularly when it comes to the Afghan and this time of the year. And mind you, these same European sports presenters, journalists, what have you, do not condemn you know uh the uh Euros or even the South American equivalent. I forget what the South American equivalent is, maybe somebody can uh put it in the footnotes, tell me what the South American equivalent of Afghan is. So the reason why you could say it's devalued in Europe, and even the coach of Mali, who himself is a white man, he said that you know, in response to FIFA's FIFA, who is the world governing body of football, they announced that the mandatory release date would be Monday, this Monday coming, the 15th of December, that seven days later than usual, before major tournaments. Yeah, and the many coach, Tom Saint, who's a white man, he described the ruling as catastrophic for preparations. He then went on to say this is quite pertinent. Everyone in Europe thinks African football is not important, he added. It shows lack of respect, and I'm angry. Yeah, so some clubs in Europe may attempt to come to ad hoc arrangements with federations in in order to keep their players for longer. And you didn't see you didn't see this when it comes to Euros or the South American equivalent. So, for example, Manchester United play Boneworth in the Premier League on the 15th of December, and may aim to hold on to their African-bound contingent of Ford Biden Bummel, who plays for Cameroon, Ringer Amadialo, place for Ivory Coast, and defender Nussia Mazwu or Mazwai, Morocco, for another 24 hours. So this is part of the disrespect that the clubs, the European clubs and journalists have of the African populations. And let's get deeper into this. Why this disrespect here? Because you know, uh many European journalists and minders think that why African, why should Africa take place between December and January? Which is right bang in the middle of the season Europe, for example, in the Premier League, Spain's a Liga, or Italia several, when clubs lose their style players for up to six weeks. Yeah. Also, another reason why uh you know European managers and you know, coaches and what have you are against Afghan is that managers complain about losing key players during title races, framing AFCO as a problem rather than a celebration of African football. Again, a Eurocentric idea is that, and this is often portrayed in the European media and journalists and what have you, that European media often portray Afcon as less prestigious as compared to the Euro or the South American equivalent, despite AFCON is actually older or has been in existence longer than the Euros. So Afcon started in 1957 and the first Euros was in 1960. Yeah. And this pays also into a colonial kind of mindset with a lot of European journalists and a lot of European managers. So their kind of um you know dismissal of Afcon refers to deeper, deeper bias here that many of us of Africans are not aware about. And this bias is that African institutions are undervalued compared to European ones. That's why I made the connection between Euros, which is given this precision coverage, and many Africans actually buy into that. Yeah, they thought the Euros is more better than their own African tournament, yeah. And that's the narrative that's been played out by the European media when it comes to African football. Okay, and I check this also, right? The narrative, yeah. So in European media, again, the the narrative for me is that it focuses on what European loses, i.e., the talent of this of these people that play for Africans that play for European clubs, rather than what Africa gains, which is a tournament that signifies content to pride and cultural significance. The European media, the European journalists, the European managers don't want to focus about how the AfCON is an opportunity for Africa to have its place on the table and expresses an expression of cultural pride and content to pride along with cultural significance in terms of football and rum. They don't want that narrative, right? All they want to do is rubbish the African content at any reason. This is why, you know, here on Ghana and Africa Focus, we um divulge from the European narrative and put forward an African-centered narrative, yeah. And this is why also that we promote tourism on the African content as opposed to going to North America, Mexico, Europe, etc. Yeah, because African countries are often downplayed, yeah, and ignored in the European frame of things, yeah. And that's why on African focus, particularly, we had to promote African tourism, yeah. And so this is all part of the narrative framing that Africa is weak and useless, and that Europe is the so-called first world. Yeah, so this is why I'm bringing this introduction, yeah, and narrative in terms of how the African Couple of Nations is um uh perceived by European coaches, European minders, and European sports journalists and sports uh commentators. Yeah, and so let's go on now to the main uh event itself, the Africa Cup of Nations. Like I said, that's going to be taking place in Morocco uh between the 21st of uh December and through to uh the January the 18th, where the final will be in Rabat. So let's give you an overview of the tournament before we go deep into you know the group stages and who we think are the big guns and who will who will get out of the group stages and eventually our pick as to who will win the Africa Cup of Nations 2025. So the host country is Morocco. Uh they are staging it uh when it was originally meant for Guinea Conakry, but they were strict of hosting the tournament in 2023. And like I said before, uh the tournament is going to play between December 21st and the final on January 18th, 2026. Now the matches we played against, we played rather in six venues across Morocco, and those are Rabat, Casablanca, Tangier, Marrakesh, Agadea, and Fez using nine stadiums. Yeah. Now on the stadia, uh, there's been heavy investment uh by the Moroccan government in building new even new stadia as well as you know rehabilitating rehabilitating rather or renovating rather um stadia that are there ready. So Morocco has invested heavily in upgrading facilities as a dress rehearsal for co hosting the FIFA 2030 World Cup. Yeah, so apparently millions of dollars have been spent by Morocco on modernizing a lot of the stadia across Morocco, including Rabatz, Prince, Mullah, Abdellah Stadium, where the final will be held on January the 18th. Now, we talk about the tournament format and group. So there's 24 teams split into six groups of four. Yeah, and we'll come into the groups in a minute, talk about the group stages in a minute. So the knockout is as follows. So the top two teams from each of the six groups will qualify for the for the knockout stages, last 16, and then the four best third-place teams will also advance to the round of 16. Yeah, so let's look at now some of the favorite before we get to group stages. Let's look at some of the contenders for the title of AfCON 25. So the so for me, and many, many other uh African sports journalists, African communists, etc., the hot favorites for this uh Afcon is Morocco. Why? Quite simply, really. So they're the highest ranked African team, even though they say that you know, even though they say the Arab, but Morocco is African country, but that's for another time. But uh they're the highest ranked African team in the FIFA World Rankings, ran to 11. And also they were semifinalists at the 2022 World Cup. Yeah, so and also Morocco playing in their own backyard. So this makes Morocco hot, hot favourites. And I'd be very surprised if they don't at least make the final, very minimum, with all the investment and with what they've done, particularly in the last World Cup. I will be very surprised if Morocco do not get at least make the final. Very minimum. I'm sure that's what their fans will be expecting for Morocco to at least minimum make the final. Anything other than making the final will be a massive, massive disappointment to Morocco as a nation, and also the football uh fraternity in Morocco. So Morocco hot favorites, and minimum that is expected from them is to make the final. Now, other contenders include Senegal, uh spearheaded by you know key players like Sadio Mane, uh Emil Kadiboule, and also their keeper, Edwin Mende. All those three used to play in Europe, but now all those three play in the Saudi Premier League. Yeah, so Senegal were champions in 2022 when they'd be Egypt in the final. And uh, as I mentioned, Sadio Mane will be spearheading that team. Again, one of the hot favorites are Egypt with Mohammed Salah. Obviously, as we know, Mohammed Salah has um had some issues with his club Liverpool in recent months, weeks, and months, and uh he's expected to leave Liverpool probably now to make his way to uh Afghan to be with his Egyptian uh you know teammates, and Egypt dominated you know Afghan in the early 2000s, they won 2004, they won three in a row, 2004, 6 and 8. No, no, no, not for I think they won four in a row, yeah. No, no, Morocco won 2004, Egypt won 2006, they won 2008 because I was in Ghana when they won it, and they won it again in 2010 when it was held in um um Angola. So Egypt, but haven't but they have not won it since 2010, so it's a long 15 years since Egypt won it, and so Mohammed Salah and the boys will be able to you know win the AFCON this year, 2025, straight 2026. Nigeria also will be a challenge, even though Nigeria has not qualified for the World Cup, they want to make amends by doing well at the AFCON. So they're so what I mean by doing well, I think most Nigerians will expect Nigeria to at least make the semi-final, if not the final. And Nigeria has great depth particular attack with this with a talisman Victor Oshimeng and also emerging talents like uh the defender, forgot his name, who scored actual goal that that main Nigeria champions in 2024. No, sorry, the runners up in 2020 against La Côte d'Ivoire. So Nigeria has a lot of talent there that could you know go far in this tournament. And the last uh contender for me are the defending champions, La Côte d'Ivoire or Weather Coast, who won the champions who were the champions uh in 2024, which was the last edition of DAFCON. And as you know, they win it famously after sucking their European manager just days before the tournament in La Côte d'Ivoire, and they hired their own African coach who actually won them the tournament. Yep. So it shows you that for an African team to win Afghan, they do not need necessarily a European coach, but investing one of their own people and uh you know results can happen. So for me, those are the teams uh who are likely to go far in this tournament, but anything can happen. So, as I mentioned, the favorites are gonna be uh the host of Morocco, former champion Senegal, and Egypt, and also Nigeria are tipped also. So these four uh countries are among the favorites to be crowned African champions come 18th of January 2026. And now some outsiders include Burkina Faso, Algeria, Cameroon, and South Africa. Those four countries could perhaps make it possibly to the quarterfinals, possibly to the semifinals. So those are the dark horses as well as the favorites. So let's check out the groups now. So we've so we've talked about a bit about the background overview of the tournament, we've talked about some of the favorites for the tournament, and also we've also talked about the um the knockout states, how that will how that will work and who qualifies or or or how it works, and we've also talked about you know some of the teams who could be surprised packages in the tournament. So let's check out the groups now in the AFCO. So in group A, we've got um spare me while I get the details up. So in group A, we've got the host of Morocco, then Mali, Zambia, and Comoros. Remember Comoros famously dumped Ghana out of the 20, I think it was 2017 uh tournament at the group stages. Ghana didn't qualify after the group. Yep, Camoros dumped Ghana out, but Camoros are not the same as they were those years ago. So if we're from group A, the two to definitely qualify will be Morocco and Mali. Yeah, with probably Zambia being the third place team. Now I'm in group B, we've got Egypt, South Africa, Angola, and Zimbabwe. And from Group B, I find Egypt and South Africa to progress to the knockout stages, the last 16, and possibly Angola being the third place in that team. Zimbabwe uh are not that strong a team, so uh they've done well to qualify for this tournament because this is their first time they've qualified for Afghan for quite a while. So that in itself is the team of Zimbabwe to qualify for the Afghan, but I don't see Zimbabwe uh getting to the knockout stages. Now in group C, we've got Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda, and Tanzania. So definitely Nigeria and TJ will qualify as the top two teams from this group, and possibly Uganda will be the third place from this group. Group D features former champion Senegal along with Diel Congo, Benin, and Botswana. Now, King Farm uh tells me that Senegal should qualify definitely, and then I believe Diel Congo will be runners up of Group D. Yeah. And then you got two minutes in Benin and Botswana to toss who will finish third in that group. But definitely Senegal and Del Congo should be the top two teams that qualify from Group D. Now group E, we have Algeria, champions in 2019, Burkina Faso, for me, one of the dark horses, Ecuador Guinea and Sudan. Sudan managed by former Ghanaian coach Chris Yapia. So again, that's another you know uh another um achievement for Sudan uh making the Afghan because again, Sudan in recent years haven't done too well in the Afghan. So qualifying for tournaments alone is a huge achievement for Sudan. But for me, out of group E, I'm definitely gonna go for Algeria. Uh, because you know, and it's quite strange that when the tournament is held in North Africa, North African teams do well, which is why I'm picking a lot all the old North African teams to qualify from their respective groups. So in group E, I'm taking Algeria and Burkina Faso to be a top two teams from uh that group, and then I believe Ekoto Guinea uh will be the third place in that group, and then group F, the last group of the sixth, is Ivy Coast, Cameroon, Gabon, and Mozambique. Again, Ivocoast are the are the defending champions, Cameroon, um you know, past champions, they won it 2017, I believe. 17, they won it. Yeah, 17, yeah, they won it in 2017. So it's been a while, but Andre Anana of Manchester, well, yeah, formerly Manchester United is alone to, I think Fenabache is not in the squad, which is a bit surprised. And uh they have some good players, so I would think Cameroon and definitely Codevois, Ivy Kuros, should qualify from group F. I know Gabon have you know the likes of Pierre Emmerich Obamayang, who used to play for Arsenal, he's still a top striker, but uh, you know, the rest of the team, you know, even though they've qualified for the Afcon, the rest of the team uh isn't in the same mode as Pierre Emmerich Obamayang. So I'm definitely gonna go for Ivory Coast and Cameroon uh from group F to qualify for the Luxis team. And so funny for the Afcon, if you want to know my my favorites here or my my prediction, I have to go with the form guide, you know, based on what we've seen or the content of the last 12 months, and also uh particularly in the World Cup from you know 2023, where Morocco became the first African team to make the semi-final of the World Cup, and Morocco you know uh equited themselves pretty well in that tournament. So for me, uh I'm going for Morocco to win the whole tournament, primarily because it's it's it's in their it's in their backyard, and also based on what they did in the World Cup, and they've got top players like Hakimi of um uh PSG, who won the um, I think he won the African the Champions League with um PSG and was also voted recently uh the African player of the year by the Confederation of African Football. So uh a lot is been expected of Morocco based on their recent uh performances, and also that they now have some very good players who are playing in some of the top leagues in Europe. And so my tip for this is AfCON 2025-2026 is going to be Morocco. All right, so uh hope you've enjoyed this uh edition of Afghan Focus, uh previewing the forthcoming uh Africa Cup of Nations, Afghan. Uh that kicks off on Sunday, this Sunday. No, this is this Sunday, no, it's a week on Sunday, the 21st of uh November. Oh the big pardon, 21st of December, and uh you can catch a lot of the games on satellite. If you're if you're in Africa, you can get it on DS TV. Uh, I'm sure you'll be streamed in a countries like Ghana, Nigeria will stream also on their local uh stations. And if you're in Europe, you can get the African content. I'm sure French TV will show it, and also uh BBC also will show it on BBC Two, I think, and or BBC four, and uh BBC Online will also stream some of the games. So it promises to be a showcase of African football, African talent, despite the objections by Europe. But uh that's for another day. So we uh hope that it's going to be a fantastic tournament, it's got a lot to live up to because the last tournament in La Côte d'Ivoire last year was a very, very fantastic tournament with great stadia and also great performances as well. So Morocco has got a lot to live up to in terms of providing a spectacle that will be um you know uh cherished and consumed by not just African football supporters but the global football community. All right, so for myself, Kwame, and from all the crew here on Africa in Focus, is thank you for listening to this special edition of African Focus. And we see you next time for some more Africa in Focus.