Clubs Given Extra Week to Release AFCON Stars

Football’s governing body, FIFA, announced on Wednesday that it has given European clubs an extra week before releasing its players for the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), billed to hold in Morocco from December 21 to January 18.

Top European teams, including Salah’s Liverpool, Mbeumo’s Manchester United, and Hakimi’s Paris Saint-Germain, could lose key players for up to five weeks for the 24-nation tournament. However, they were concerned that the absence could last even longer until FIFA revised its regulations to ease the situation for clubs by postponing the player release date by a week.

This decision followed “productive discussions led by FIFA with key stakeholders and the spirit of cooperation shown by CAF to mitigate the impact on various parties,” stated FIFA, referring to the tournament’s organising body, the Confederation of African Football.

FIFA also specified that it would be beneficial for member associations taking part in the 2025 AFCON and clubs releasing players to engage in constructive bilateral discussions to find suitable individual solutions.

Prior to FIFA’s decision, players were expected to report for international duty by December 8, meaning English Premier League teams might have gone without crucial players for potentially seven or even eight matches during a particularly hectic period of the season.

The timing of the competition is particularly challenging for teams like high-flying Sunderland and struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers, who could lose as many as seven and five players, respectively.

Liverpool will miss Salah, while Manchester City will be without his teammate Omar Marmoush and Algeria’s Rayan Ait-Nouri, and United will lose Mbeumo from Cameroon, Amad Diallo from Ivory Coast, and Morocco’s Noussair Mazraoui. Conversely, league leaders Arsenal, Chelsea, and Leeds will not be affected.

French and European champions PSG will be without Hakimi, the current African player of the year, but other European powerhouses like Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, and Juventus will not lose any players to the tournament.

Bayern Munich’s Senegal forward Nicolas Jackson, who is on loan from Chelsea, will participate in the tournament but won’t miss many Bundesliga matches, as the league will enter its winter break from December 22 to January 8.