It is 26 days to the start of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, and preparations across all areas are going on smoothly and steadily. With the much-anticipated tournament around the corner, every nation desires to present its best players to achieve the set targets.
CAF, over time, reviews and updates its competition rules and the 2025 AFCON edition is not different, with guidelines and timelines set.
In today’s episode, we put emphasis on the dates and number of players of squads that CAF has permitted for National Teams to use.
21st November 2025
This day meant the tournament was exactly a month away from kickoff and each of the 24 teams that will compete in Morocco was required to submit a provisional squad of up to 55 players to CAF. However, an extension was made up to 24th November.
After this process, it is no longer be possible to select a player who is not included in this list. The provisional squad must be sent to CAF, but federations are under no obligation to make it public.
South Africa has become the first team to confirm its squad summoned.
December 11th 2025
From the provisional squads, each team will be required to name their final 23-man squad for the tournament.
After this deadline, no changes are permitted except in cases of force majeure (notably injury) recognized by the organizing committee.
In case a team fails to comply and submit their final squad seven days from kickoff, their final squad will be trimmed to 21 players.
Possibility of having a 28-man final squad
In some of the new regulations by CAF, each participating team is allowed to submit a list of up to 28 players for the final squad. However, CAF will only cater for 23 players in terms of travel, accommodation, and other competition-related logistics.
The remaining five optional slots may be utilized at the discretion of the National teams, but the full cost of those additional players will be taken care of by the concerned Federations (Member Associations).
The intention of this new regulation to give teams greater flexibility in managing injuries, suspensions, and tactical planning.
AFCON 2025 will be held from 21st December to 18th January across six major cities in Morocco.