FIFA Sets Deadline for Clubs Before Releasing AFCON Stars

• FIFA has approved a one-week extension allowing African stars like Mohamed Salah, Bryan Mbeumo, and Achraf Hakimi to remain with their clubs until December 15 before joining their national teams for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

Star players such as Mohamed Salah, Bryan Mbeumo, and Achraf Hakimi will now remain with their European clubs for an additional week—until December 15—before departing for national team duty ahead of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, FIFA announced on Wednesday.

This adjustment offers major relief to top clubs including Liverpool, Manchester United, and Paris Saint-Germain, who had feared losing key players for an extended period during the busy holiday schedule. The 24-nation AFCON tournament will hold in Morocco from December 21 to January 18.

The decision followed what FIFA described as “fruitful consultations with key stakeholders” and a cooperative effort from the Confederation of African Football to reduce the burden on clubs.

“It was also decided to encourage member associations participating in the 2025 AFCON and clubs releasing players… to engage in good faith bilateral discussions in order to find appropriate individual solutions,” FIFA said.

Before this new directive, AFCON-bound players were required to report for international duty by December 8—a rule that would have forced Premier League teams to play up to eight matches without their African stars.

The timing of the tournament remains challenging for certain English clubs. Sunderland could lose up to seven players, while Wolverhampton Wanderers may be without five.

Liverpool will miss Egypt forward Salah; Manchester City will lose Egypt’s Omar Marmoush and Algeria’s Rayan Aït-Nouri; and Manchester United will be without Cameroon’s Bryan Mbeumo, Ivory Coast winger Amad Diallo, and Morocco’s Noussair Mazraoui.

DON’T MISS: Cameroon Drops Onana, Aboubakar From Final AFCON 2025 Squad

Meanwhile, league leaders Arsenal, Chelsea, and Leeds are unaffected, while PSG will have to cope without Hakimi, the reigning African Footballer of the Year. Top clubs across Europe—including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, and AC Milan—will not lose any squad members to the competition.

Bayern Munich striker Nicolas Jackson, on loan from Chelsea, will also join Senegal for AFCON, but the Bundesliga winter break (December 22–January 8) means the club will not feel his absence as sharply.

As anticipation builds, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, and Senegal enter the tournament as leading favourites.