The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations begins in December this year and the draw is taking place in Morocco today. The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations runs from 21 December of this year until 18 January 2026 and today sees the draw to determine who plays who in the group stage.
With qualification having taken place throughout 2024, a total of 23 teams, plus hosts Morocco, have qualified to play at the 35th edition of Afcon, which will be taking place in the north African country for the first time since 1988. Ivory Coast are the defending champions after they memorably sacked coach Jean-Louis Gasset mid-tournament in 2023, switching to Emerse Fae when Gasset had led them through the group stage.
Under Fae, the Elephants beat defending champions Senegal on penalties in the last 16, downed Mali after extra-time in the quarter-finals and then bested DR Congo in the semi-finals. That set up a final against Nigeria, which they won 2-1 thanks to second-half goals from Franck Kessie and Sebastian Haller to claim the Afcon crown for the first time since 2015.
Here’s everything you need to know about today’s draw:. The draw for Afcon 2025 takes place in the Mohammed V National Theatre in Rabat, Morocco on 27 January at 6pm GMT (7pm local time). There will be four pots of six teams with one side from each pot drawn into every group. Morocco were put into pot 1 as hosts, as were reigning champions Ivory Coast, with the other 22 qualifiers then placed in pots 1-4 according to their Fifa world ranking as of 19 December 2024.
