Eagles know 2025 AFCON foes today
Three-time champions Nigeria will know their opponents for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations on Monday (today) as the Confederation of African Football conducts the draw in Morocco, NewsNGR Sports Extra reports.
The 2025 tournament will also be played in the North African country from December 21 to January 18, 2026.
Currently ranked as the fifth-best team in Africa, the Super Eagles are in Pot 1 for the draw ceremony along with seven-time winners Egypt, three-time champions and Cup holders Ivory Coast, two-time winners Algeria, hosts and 1976 champions Morocco and 2021 winners Senegal.
By their seeding, it means the Super Eagles will avoid any of the teams in the group stages but could face tough opposition from Pot 2, which includes Cameroon, Mali, Tunisia, South Africa, DR Congo and Burkina Faso.
Pot 3 contains Gabon, Angola, Zambia, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea and the Benin Republic, while Pot 4 features Mozambique, Comoros, Tanzania, Sudan, Zimbabwe and tournament debutants Botswana.
According to the Nigeria Football Federation, new Super Eagles head coach Éric Chelle and team administrator, Dayo Enebi, alongside the Chairman of NFF Technical and Development Committee, Sharif Inuwa will attend the colourful ceremony in the heart of Morocco’s administrative capital, Rabat.
The draw will be conducted at Mohammed V National Theatre in Rabat, Morocco by 7:00 pm Nigerian time.
At the 2025 tournament, Nigeria will be participating in the AFCON for the 21st time, reaching the tournament with two games to spare in November 2024.
On November 14, 2024, they needed a draw against the Benin Republic in their penultimate game to qualify, but their job was done before kick-off, thanks to an unexpected result in Kigali, where Rwanda suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Libya.
Their qualifying campaign however didn’t end on a high, losing the last game 2-1 against Rwanda in Uyo.
Nigeria heads into the draw as record medal holders in the competition’s 68-year history with 16 medals in 20 appearances, including three titles (1980, 1994, 2013), five runner-up finishes (1984, 1988, 1990, 2000 and 2023) and eight bronze medals.
They finished second at the last edition in Ivory Coast after losing the final 2-1 against the hosts.
According to CAF, Monday’s draw will be televised across 90 countries including Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and North and South America.
