The Confederation of Africa Football(CAF) has announced the re-opening of bids for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) after initial host Guinea was stripped of the hosting right to the competition.

Last week, CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, was in the capital city of Guinea Conakry to announce that the biennial tournament will not be held in Guinea due to the inability to afford the modern infrastructures and facilities needed to host the tournament.

“The 2025 Nations Cup allocated to Guinea will not take place there because we’re not yet ready in Guinea,” said Mr Motsepe in a news conference on Friday. 

However, CAF has now announced the re-opening of bids for the 2025 AFCON in a statement issued by the body yesterday.

“The Confédération Africaine de Football (“CAF”) Executive Committee (“EXCO”) met on Saturday 1 October 2022 in Algiers, Algeria and announced the re-opening of bids for the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations 2025,” the statement read.

“CAF also wishes Africa representatives well ahead of the upcoming Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup coming up in November.

“CAF wishes Senegal, Tunisia, Ghana, Morocco and Cameroon all of the best in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™,” the statement added.

According to multiple reports, Morocco and South Africa have expressed interest to bid to host the tournament while the past Nigeria Football Federation administration led by Amaju Pinnick had in June expressed Nigeria’s interest to co-host the tournament with West Africa neighbour Benin Republic.

Ibraham Gasau replaced Pinnick after he won the September 30, 2022 election conducted at the NFF Annual General Assembly and Elective Congress that was held in Benin, Edo state.

Only time will tell if Mr Gasau would follow up the interest of his predecessor and officially bid for the hosting rights to the tournament.

People Gazette had earlier reported the uphill tasks that both the NFF and Nigeria government must overcome to land the hosting right.