There will be no African Cup of Nations (CAN) in 2023. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced on Sunday that the next edition of the continental competition, won in February by Senegal, would be postponed from June-July 2023 to January-February 2024. The reason?
The particular climatic conditions in summer in Côte d'Ivoire, the organizing country of this CAN.
"The main problem here is basically the rain (Editor's note: the rainy season affects this country at this time of the year), the climate, underlined CAF President Patrice Motsepe on the sidelines of a meeting organized in Rabat in Morocco, where the women's CAN is currently being played.
We don't want to take the risk of having a competition under the deluge.
It would not be good for African football and its image.
This is the one and only reason why the CAF Executive Committee has decided to move the CAN to Côte d'Ivoire in January/February 2024."
A new winter edition
As is customary and as was the case during the last edition in Cameroon, the competition will therefore be held in winter.
This place in the calendar causes tensions with European clubs, where many African internationals play.
The latter must do without them for several weeks of competition.
The Caf has also announced that the African Super League will start in August 2023, with teams to be determined.
The European version of this project, launched in April 2021, had fallen apart in 48 hours in the face of a major sporting and political rebellion.
