The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has re-opened bids for the hosting rights of AFCON 2025 after they were taken away from original host Guinea.

The CAF Executive Committee met on Saturday 1 October 2022 in Algiers, Algeria where the announcement was made.

Guinea were stripped of the competition following a meeting on Friday in Conakry between Guinea’s interim president, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, and the president of African football’s governing body, Patrice Motsepe, to discuss the withdrawal after the west African country, among the poorest of the continent, said it was not ready to host the 24-nation tournament.

In 2014, Guinea originally were awarded the hosting rights to the 2023 finals, along with Cameroon (2019) and Ivory Coast (2021).

But Cameroon were stripped of the right to host the 2019 tournament, as they were not ready, with Egypt filling in. Cameroon were then awarded the 2021 tournament, which eventually took place earlier this year after a one-year postponement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ivory Coast were due to host the next tournament in mid-2023 but that has been moved to early 2024 after concerns over the weather at that time of the year in the region.

The expansion of the Cup of Nations finals to 24 teams in 2019 meant Guinea’s sparse infrastructure was always going to be stretched and the decision is no surprise.

The country suffered a coup one year ago when special forces commander Doumbouya ousted President Alpha Conde. A year earlier, Conde had changed the constitution to circumvent limits that would have prevented him from standing for a third term, triggering widespread rioting.