Confederation of African Football (CAF) is ‘seriously’ considering Nigeria’s joint bid with Benin Republic to host the 2025 African Cup of Nations, a source at the continental body’s headquarters has said.

Nigeria and Benin Republic are jointly bidding the host the AFCON in 2025 following Guinea’s withdrawal from hosting the event due to cash issues.

According to the source, who pleaded anonymity, the West African bid’s main rival is Morocco, which has in recent years, bought CAF’s confidence with its state of the art facilities and development plan.

“CAF officials, who visited Nigeria early this month, were impressed by the state of the facilities and are disposed to seeing the event here.

“But they need strong assurance from government that some of the issues they raised would be addressed promptly,” he said. He said Morocco also stands a good chance of hosting the competition because “apart from its top quality facilities, it has hosted several other international competitions successfully. These include the African Women Nations Cup, Club World Cup and the finals of CAF Women’s Champions League.”

Morocco, he added, has recruited some of Africa’s football legends, including George Weah, to drive its bid.

“I think Algeria is looking more towards hosting the 2027 edition, which it has also bided for, than the 2025 AFCON,” he said. CAF was originally scheduled to name the successful bid on February 10, but it will now hold later this year.

Meanwhile, African football governing body, CAF, yesterday, released the list of six countries bidding to host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.

CAF said in a statement made available to The Guardian that Algeria, Botswana, Egypt and a joint bid by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania beat the deadline set for interested countries to turn in their bids.

It explained that the deadline for submitting interest in hosting the AFCON was March 23, 2023, adding that member countries’ final bid, including all bidding and hosting documents (hosting agreement, host cities agreement, government guarantees, etc.), should be duly signed.”

The confederation said its stadium and other facilities inspectors would visit the bidding countries from June 1 to 15 before announcing the winning bid later this year. (The Guardian)