The move of the Africa Cup of Nations to the 2023–24 season might have an impact on a number of Premier League teams, including Liverpool and Arsenal from the previous year.
Due to weather concerns in the Ivory Coast, the next Africa Cup of Nations has been postponed to 2024, when it will now be held during the winter.
It will be held in January and February, just like the most recent AFCON, which means a number of Premier League players may miss some of the seasons.
To move the competition to 2024, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and other executive boards have to agree. According to the BBC, CAF President Patrice Motsepe stated in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, “We cannot take the chance.”
Actually, CAF declared in 2017 that the customary January-February period will end in the near future in order to assist settle disagreements with European clubs who had previously been unimpressed by having to release their players in the middle of the season.
Although Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah only ended up missing two Premier League games due to the winter break, Liverpool lost both players last season.
Thomas Partey missed one game for Arsenal because he returned for their scoreless draw with Burnley after Ghana was eliminated at the group stage while Mohamed Elneny played for Egypt.
While Yves Bissouma, a new midfielder for Tottenham, represents Mali, Chelsea had Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy participating for Morocco and Senegal, respectively.
In other leagues, Manchester United has Ivory Coast player Eric Bailly, and Liverpool may lose Salah once again now that Mane has signed Bayern Munich. There are ongoing qualifying matches for the next competition, even if some of the games were played back in June.
In their first two games, Salah’s Egypt won over Guinea and lost to Ethiopia, while Malawi, the other nation in that group, also earned three points. Algeria, led by Riyad Mahrez, has perhaps had the best qualifying start of any team, going 2-0 against Tanzania and Uganda while not giving up a goal.
Ivory Coast features a number of Premier League stars including Wilfried Zaha and Nicolas Pepe and they have made a fast start to their qualifying campaign with a 4-1 win over Patson Daka’s Zambia, although they were held to a goalless draw by Lesotho.
They will automatically compete in the tournament, though, due to being hosts.