Guinea Reaffirms Its Commitment to Hosting the AFCON 2025 Football Tournament

Guinea’s military government has assured a Confederation of African Football (CAF) mission that it will meet the scheduled timetable for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) to be held in 2025.

CAF has dispatched a team to West Africa to assess the country’s readiness to host the tournament.

Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who ascended to power in a coup in September 2021, met with the delegation on Wednesday, August 31st.

Sports Minister Lansana Bea Diallo said, “They came with a message, and this message was, ‘Is 2025 feasible for us [Guineans] or not?’”

According to him, the CAF team considered postponing AFCON 2025 until 2026 or 2027.

The minister was quoted as saying on state television late Wednesday evening, “The president was straightforward – ‘We made this a national priority, and the national priority is for 2025. We won’t go for 2026 or 2027, we will organize it in 2025.’”

Guinea faces a significant challenge in hosting Africa’s largest sporting event due to a chronic lack of sporting and transportation infrastructure.

The country also has a long history of political upheaval.

On the eve of the CAF visit, Doumbouya issued a decree, declaring the 2025 competition a matter of “national and priority interest.”

Doumbouya formed a new organizing committee in March after one of its members publicly questioned whether the tournament could be held in 2025.

The visit appeared to have encouraged the CAF mission. “Today, we are really reassured by Guinea’s preparedness,” said Mathurin de Chacus of Benin.

In remarks broadcast on television, Doumbouya “spoke like a soldier – he’s determined to organize CAN for the Guinean public.”

According to him, the delegation will brief the CAF on the outcome of its mission.