The 8th edition of the biennial association football tournament organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), featuring national teams consisting of players currently playing in their respective local leagues, will kick off on August 2nd and run until August 30th.
Tanzania’s Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam will host the opening match, Nelson Mandela Stadium in Kampala, Uganda, has been designated to host the third and fourth match of the event while Kenya’s Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi will host the final match of the competition on August 30th, 2025.
The African body have further confirmed that Zanzibar, have been added to the country’s that will host the tournament’s matches with the New Amaan Stadium, which recently staged a successful CAF Confederation Cup 2024/25 final between Tanzania’s Simba SC and RS Berkane of Morocco, in May, set to host Group D matches.
“Additionally, Zanzibar has been designated as one of the Host Venues – a decision that underscores CAF’s commitment to expanding the reach and inclusivity of African football,” read part of the statement from CAF.
According to CAF, the group stages of the tournament will be as follows; Group A, which comprises of Kenya, Morocco, Angola, DR Congo, Zambia, will be based in Nairobi, Group B of Tanzania, Madagascar, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, while Group C of Uganda, Niger, Guinea, South Africa, Algeria, will be based in Kampala. Group D, which comprises Senegal, Congo, Sudan, Nigeria, will stage their matches in Zanzibar.
Kenya’s Harambee Stars will be hoping to leave a mark in the tournament, and in a recent interview, head coach Benni McCarthy remained confident that they will produce a good show.
“90 percent of our team was local players, so it wasn’t international players, it was just Mandela, Lenkupae, and Adam, those were the only international players, and these are players that hasn’t played a lot of football this season,” the South African legend told Flashscore in a recent interview.
“So, I just wanted to give them also a bit of game time, and just to get them have some minutes, be part of the group, of the team, and they can also help with the local players, and it worked fantastically because these players, they were very instrumental, they were very key, to what we are trying to do, and I think now for the boys that are gonna play in the CHAN, I just hope that from here, they have just seen the levels that I expect from them.
“They have seen the levels that if we reach the kind of footballs that we can play, the results that we can have is a lot of good and positive things to look forward to with CHAN coming up, and I am excited that the team will be ready, and we will have nice time with them and then prepare them so that when CHAN comes, these team will be ready and raring to go.
“Our main focus is to bless the country with more victories, more wins, to make them happy.”
This will be the first edition of CHAN to be hosted by three countries.
