AFCON 2023: competition in the Ivory Coast postponed from June-July 2023 to January-February 2024

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, scheduled to be held in the Ivory Coast from 23/06 to 23/07/2023 has been postponed and will now take place in January-February 2024, announced the Confederation of African Football (CAF) following a meeting of its executive committee in Rabat (MAR) on 03/07/2022.

Patrice Motsepe (RSA), president of CAF, cited weather as the reason for the postponement, which had been under consideration for several days: "We don’t want to run the risk of having a competition that’s going to be washed out." June-July corresponds to the rainy season in the Ivory Coast (300mm of water on average in June) and it was not possible to bring the tournament forward to January-February 2023 because of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar scheduled from 21/11 to 18/12/2022.

"It is after deliberations we came to the decision, we have partners and even though we make decisions, it is out of respect that we take the advice we are getting that we cannot take the risk. Some people said, 'there is climate change, so maybe rain won't be a problem' and that we shouldn't worry. January is not…