Channel 4 has secured exclusive UK rights to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in a landmark deal with the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF), marking the first time the entire tournament will be shown free-to-air in the UK.
All 52 matches from the tournament in Morocco, running from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026, will be shown live across Channel 4, E4, 4Seven, Channel 4 Streaming and the Channel 4 Sport YouTube channel. Coverage will be produced by IMG, with the rights agreement facilitated through IMG as CAF’s international media rights and sponsorship agency.
The 24-team tournament will be spread across nine stadiums and is set to feature a strong contingent of Premier League players. Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush are expected to lead the line for record winners Egypt, who face Zimbabwe on 22 December and South Africa on Boxing Day – with the latter match kicking off at 3pm on Channel 4.
Other Premier League names expected to appear include Manchester United’s Bryan Mbeumo (Cameroon), Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui (Morocco), Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye (Senegal), Fulham duo Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey (Nigeria), West Ham’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka (DR Congo), Crystal Palace attacker Ismaila Sarr (Senegal) and Wolves defender Emmanuel Agbadou (Côte d’Ivoire).
Channel 4 head of sport Pete Andrews said AFCON’s move to free-to-air TV would offer fans a new festive football destination at a time when traditional Boxing Day Premier League coverage has been scaled back. CAF general secretary Véron Mosengo-Omba described the agreement as “historic”, saying it would bring AFCON into UK households in full for the first time and underlined the competition’s status as a premium global football property.
