CHAN 2025: CAF to postpone tournament over infrastructural challenges

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is expected to announce the postponement of the 2025 African Nations Championship (CHAN), per beIN Sports reports.

The tournament which was originally scheduled to start on 1st February and 28 February 2025, will now begin on a yet-to-be-decided date in August and end the following month.

For months, CAF has contemplated postponing the tournament following logistical and infrastructural setbacks.

With less than a month to the original start date, some of the facilities earmarked to host the tournament, including the Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar City, Tanzania, are still yet to be completed.

Logistics aside, there are issues with the participating teams and the qualification criteria.

Originally, the qualifying series was supposed to produce 21 teams, but by December 2024, only 19 teams were confirmed to participate after Egypt and Algeria pulled out of the tournament.

Egypt pulled out of the competition citing scheduling conflicts, but convened an emergency meeting to consider reversing the decision. The Egyptian Football Association is expected to communicate its decision later this week.

Algeria are also expected to make a final decision on their participation in the tournament.

Although these issues have not been resolved, CAF is expected to proceed with the scheduled draw on January 15, 2025.

The sudden interest in the competition has coincided with CAF’s decision to increase the prize money. Last week, CAF announced that the champion will now take home $3.5 million, marking a hefty 75% increase from the previous payout.