{"id":51546,"date":"2025-10-07T18:54:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T18:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief"},"modified":"2025-10-07T19:31:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T19:31:53","slug":"morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief","title":{"rendered":"Morocco protests won\u2019t affect AFCON 2025 plans, CAF chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Eritrea. <\/strong><\/span><b>Protests against the Moroccan government, partly triggered by spending on stadiums, will not change plans for the Africa Cup of Nations, the continent\u2019s top football official said on Monday.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Morocco, which is currently building the world\u2019s largest football stadium as part of its preparations to co-host the 2030 Men\u2019s World Cup, has seen demonstrations this month led by young activists in more than a dozen cities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMorocco is plan A, Morocco is plan B, and Morocco is plan C,\u201d said Patrice Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), at a press conference following CAF\u2019s annual general assembly when asked about a possible change of plans for the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Protesters, organised by an online collective called , named after Morocco\u2019s country code, have chanted slogans such as \u201cThere are stadiums, but where are the hospitals?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Demands for opportunities<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The protesters are voicing anger over what they see as a lack of opportunities and underfunded health and education systems. Their movement has gained support on social media, including from national team players such as Sofyan Amrabat and Yassine Bounou.<\/p>\n<p>The North African country is set to host the Africa Cup of Nations, which will take place over four weeks starting on December 21 and will feature 24 teams. On Monday, CAF\u2019s president was asked whether the schedule or dates could change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are absolutely confident that CAF will cooperate and work with the government and the entire Moroccan people to deliver the most successful Africa Cup of Nations in the history of this competition,\u201d Motsepe said.<\/p>\n<p>CAF\u2019s first vice president is Fouzi Lekjaa, Morocco\u2019s football chief and a financial adviser to the government, which is helping fund part of the $5 billion budget for World Cup-related projects.<\/p>\n<p><b>Morocco\u2019s new stadiums<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Two years ago, CAF selected Morocco to replace Guinea as host of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. The country plans to use nine stadiums, including an expanded Grand Stade de Tanger, which will increase its capacity to 75,000 seats, and a renovated Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, which will seat 70,000.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco is also building the Hassan II Stadium in Casablanca, with a capacity of 115,000, hoping it will host the 2030 World Cup final, a tournament the country will co-host with Spain and Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>The 2030 World Cup, featuring 48 teams, will kick off with a few matches held in neighbouring South American countries, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay \u2014 the latter having hosted the very first World Cup in 1930.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Eritrea<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Eritrea. Protests against the Moroccan government, partly triggered by spending on stadiums, will not change plans for the Africa Cup of Nations, the continent\u2019s top football official said on Monday. Morocco, which is currently building the world\u2019s largest football stadium as part of its preparations to co-host the 2030 Men\u2019s World Cup, has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":51545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[262,263,233,125,245],"class_list":["post-51546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-cup-nations","tag-african-football","tag-eritrea","tag-football","tag-morocco"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Morocco protests won\u2019t affect AFCON 2025 plans, CAF chief - Eritrea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Protests against the Moroccan government, partly triggered by spending on stadiums, will not change plans for the Afr ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Morocco protests won\u2019t affect AFCON 2025 plans, CAF chief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Protests against the Moroccan government, partly triggered by spending on stadiums, will not change plans for the Afr ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eritrea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-07T18:54:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-07T19:31:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2025\/10\/sm_1759852672.690915.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"538\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Morocco protests won\u2019t affect AFCON 2025 plans, CAF chief\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-07T18:54:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-07T19:31:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief\"},\"wordCount\":429,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2025\/10\/sm_1759852672.690915.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa cup nations\",\"African Football\",\"Eritrea\",\"football\",\"Morocco\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/morocco-protests-wont-affect-afcon-2025-plans-caf-chief\",\"name\":\"Morocco protests won\u2019t affect AFCON 2025 plans, CAF chief - 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