Why Is AFCON Played In The Middle Of The Premier League Season?

This year’s AFCON 2023 schedule has left plenty of Premier League clubs short on bodies – right in the middle of the season.

It’s a regular issue for European clubs when their African stars depart.  At the height of the league campaign, dozens of key players disappear on international duty for up to six weeks.

AFCON 2023 – which is confusingly played in 2024 – gets underway on 13 January and is being hosted by the Ivory Coast. The competition runs until the final on 11 February, just as mid-season injury problems start to mount for many sides.

The Premier League will be without the likes of Mo Salah, Andre Onana and Mohammed Kudus during the tournament.

With the top European leagues set to lose so many big names, plenty have been asking why the competition must be played in the middle of the campaign.

Champions Manchester City are one of only a few clubs not set to lose anyone in the coming weeks. Pep Guardiola’s squad does not currently include anyone due to feature at either AFCON or the Asian Cup.

With AFCON and the Asian Cup set to kick off next week, Man City haven’t got a single player heading to either tournament, while teams around them will be missing some big names 😮 pic.twitter.com/fUDd4YsfQA

— SPORTbible (@sportbible) January 3, 2024

Not everyone is so fortunate. Clubs such as Nottingham Forest must do without as many as six players for at least part of the competition.

Other continental tournaments, such as the Euros and Copa America, take place in the summer – outside of the regular club season.

But like the Asian Cup, the African Cup of Nations is almost always played during the Northern Hemisphere winter in January and February.

Why Is AFCON Played During The Premier League Season?

The reason for this is less obvious than you might expect, though. It’s true that most of the time, it simply isn’t practical to play elite-level football during the African summer.

Temperatures in many parts of the continent reach scorching highs in summer, well above 40°C and far too hot for football. But that wasn’t why hosts Ivory Coast requested this year’s tournament started in January.

They asked CAF for a winter tournament to avoid the West and Central African tropical rain season. Temperatures in the country are usually not too unpleasant, but heavy rains and possible flooding are a major issue.

As a result, the most logical time of year for the tournament is during the winter months. While inconvenient to many club sides, it’s the only time a major tournament can feasibly be played in most African countries, including the Ivory Coast.

AFCON 2023 Schedule

The group stages of this season’s AFCON run from 13 to 24 January. Thanks to the Premier League’s scheduling for this season, most teams only actually have one league match during this period.

However, with the FA Cup third round taking place this week, many teams still have fixtures to worry about. Most AFCON stars have already left to link up with their national sides, and won’t be back for some time.

And clubs making it through to the fourth round of the FA Cup will have another match to contend with. Fourth round ties are to be played over the weekend of 27 January.

Thankfully for managers, the upcoming round of Premier League fixtures are rather spaced out. Games take place between Saturday 13 and Monday 22 January, with the next full round of matches not starting until Tuesday 30 of January.

But the knockout rounds of this year’s AFCON continue well beyond this date. The knockout stages start on 27 January, with the final on 11 February.

This means that even players knocked out in the group stages of AFCON 2023 may not be back in time for their club’s FA Cup fourth round games.

And for players reaching the competition’s climax, they could miss a huge chunk of matches.

Liverpool’s Mo Salah was an AFCON runner-up with Egypt in the last tournament, losing on penalties to former teammate Sadio Mane’s Senegal.

Should he make the final once more, Salah could miss as many as eight matches for Jurgen Klopp’s side.

But while it is a stressful period for Premier League managers, the AFCON tournament is a special competition. It’s a chance at glory for those involved, and shines a spotlight on the entire continent of Africa.