2023 Africa Cup of Nations - Host Selection
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, known for short as the 2023 AFCON or CAN 2023 and for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, is the ongoing 34th edition of the biennial African association football event organised by Confederation of African Football. Ivory Coast is hosting it for the second time, and the first since 1984.
- Algeria
- Guinea (Guinea was originally awarded the 2023 tournament, but hosting duties were pushed back to 2025 after Cameroon hosted in 2021 instead of 2019 owing to non-readiness at the time. However, Guinea could not reach the deadline for tournament preparations and was later stripped of 2023 hosting rights on 30 September 2022; Morocco was selected as the replacement host on 27 September 2023.)
- Ivory Coast (Ivory Coast was originally awarded the 2021 tournament, which was later pushed forward to 2023 following Cameroon hosting the 2021 edition. However, Ivory Coast later requested to CAF for the 2023 edition to be hosted in January–February 2024 to avoid the West and Central African tropical rain season which typically reaches its peak around June–July.)
- Zambia
Rejected bids
- Cameroon
- Kenya
- Sudan
- Senegal
CAF initially announced the hosts for the 2019, 2021 and 2023 editions of Africa Cup of Nations after the final vote at its executive committee meeting on 20 September 2014, awarding the 2019 edition to Cameroon, the 2021 edition to Ivory Coast and the 2023 edition to Guinea.
The announcement of the 2023 hosts was unscheduled. Guinea was one of the bidders for the 2019 and 2021 editions, whose host countries were scheduled to be announced on that day. A CAF spokesperson told BBC News that, on the basis of Guinea's presentation "and commitment", the committee "decided to exercise its power to make an immediate decision."
Host change
On 30 November 2018, CAF stripped Cameroon from hosting the 2019 edition due to lack of speed of progress in hosting preparations, but accepted former CAF President Ahmad Ahmad's request for Cameroon to stage the following edition in 2021. Consequently, the original hosts of 2021, Ivory Coast, would host the 2023 edition, and the original hosts of 2023, Guinea were planned to host the 2025 edition, which until that point was yet to have a host named.
On 30 January 2019, the CAF President confirmed the timetable shift, after a meeting with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
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