Head coach of Ivory Coast Emerse Fae has admitted facing a daunting task in retaining the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Morocco.
The West African football heavyweights has already booked a place in the knockout stage of the 2025 AFCON tournament, being held in the North African country.
Fae and his charges emerged victorious in the 2023 tournament, held on home soil and are in contention for the current edition in Morocco.
Speaking in an interview, Fae admitted retaining the AFCON crown at the ongoing tournament in Morocco is a hard task for his team.
“There are eight or nine teams with squads that can win it, and I feel like teams play differently against us because we are the reigning champions,” Fae admitted
“That makes things even harder, but we are motivated to go all the way and we are confident too.” He said.
Ivory Coast will play their final group game at the continental showpiece on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the scheduling of AFCON has been a recurring challenge in recent years. The last three editions were rescheduled, with the 2021 tournament played in 2022 due to infrastructure delays in Cameroon, and the 2023 edition moved to early 2024 for similar reasons.
CAF had previously attempted to shift the tournament from its traditional January to February window to June and July, but only the 2019 edition in Egypt was held during that period, with extreme heat affecting performances.
Tournaments in West Africa have also struggled with a June to July slot because of heavy rainfall and the risk of flooding. The Morocco 2025 tournament was initially planned for June and July, but the expansion of FIFA’s Club World Cup to 32 teams, scheduled for the same period, forced a change.
