By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (December 20^th 2025)

Under Pressure

Morocco coach Walid Regragui is under pressure to not only put up a good showing at Morocco’s third Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) win a second star for the Atlas Lions. They won in 1976 – their only victory in Africa’s premier football event with a unique format – and hosted for the first time in 1988. This is their second time hosting Africa’s prized football event. Regragui says he does not feel the pressure despite Morocco’s success in Qatar’s World Cup raising expectations in the country – success breeds demand for bigger and better things.

His task has been made even more difficult because FIFA reduced the time for players to report for the tournament from 15 days to seven, but even that was not enough for some. Manchester United felt that they had been treated unfairly over their request to keep defender Noussair Mazraoui for their match against AFC Bournemouth, which had been moved to Monday December 15^th for television reasons.

Manchester United appealed to FIFA when Morocco refused to permit Mazraoui’s departure to be delayed, claiming that they were being treated unfairly. FIFA encouraged countries and clubs to negotiate, but there had already been a massive compromise by African football as FIFA had already cut their preparation time by more than half. African nations lived with it even though that meant inadequate preparation time, which may affect the quality of the football – was it the intention that this would undermine AFCON and strengthen demands for AFCON to be reduced from every two years to every four years – something FIFA president Gianni Infantino has made no secret of his support for.

The Real Unfairness

That reduction in preparation time was not enough for some. While the European clubs pay the players’ wages and understandably want their players to be available for them, especially over the Christmas period, this AFCON is different. When Morocco bid for the tournament originally, they wanted to host in the summer just past – CAF agreed to that and it should have happened.

If the tournament had taken place in the northern hemisphere’s summer as Morocco wanted and Africa had been pushed to deliver for years by European clubs in particular, there would have been no problem over releasing players for it from Europe. So, why didn’t this happen? FIFA President Gianni Infantino won support for a revamped and bigger Club World Cup tournament to take place in the summer. But why did that happen? It was obvious, or should have been that this would benefit the 32 clubs taking part, the hosts, the USA, and FIFA, but who would it harm?

Whether this idea – implemented – won support from football’s governing bodies or not is irrelevant. AFCON has a 68-year history. It has tradition, history and sporting excellence on its side. No other confederation was obliged to shift its previously scheduled dates for its marquee tournament to accommodate a new tournament apart from Asia, which ever gets the flak Africa does for its tournament taking place during the top European seasons.

The decision to accommodate the CWC meant that date-juggling was required. Morocco was determined to host its third AFCON this year and that meant it would happen at some point during the main European nations’ seasons. That meant the usual rows would occur, but this time the European clubs got it wrong – Morocco was not the villain; it was the victim.