The qualifying road to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals in Morocco will begin in March, according to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The CAF meeting held in Cairo, Egypt, on Monday, February 20, agreed on the schedule of the next edition of Africa's most prestigious football event, with the qualifiers likely to start in the third week of March.

During the meeting, an agreement in principle between CAF and the Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) was reached that the AFCON 2025 will commence on July 20 and will run through August 17.

The change in dates was made from the normal calendar when the tournament begins in January.

"This agreement was reached under the aegis of FIFA after a series of talks which intensified during the last edition held in Cote d’Ivoire," CAF stated in a press briefing on Monday after the meeting.

Eight teams, namely Somalia, Djibouti, Sao Tome, Chad, Mauritius, South Sudan, Liberia and Eswatini, who are the lowest ranked teams on the continent, will begin the qualifiers with the first phase being from March 18 to March 26.

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Morocco, Africa's highest ranked team as per the February FIFA rankings, previously hosted the competition in 1988. They were due to host the 2015 edition but withdrew their interest due to then Ebola pandemic and it was moved to Equatorial Guinea.

Rwanda will be aiming to make it to the AFCON for the first time since 2004. Hopes are high considering that German Frank Torsten Spittler has started brightly in his tenure as new head coach of the side.