Ivory Coast head coach Emerse Faé has admitted that retaining the Africa Cup of Nations title in Morocco will be a daunting challenge, despite his side already securing a place in the knockout stages of AFCON 2025.
The Elephants, champions of the 2023 edition played on home soil, are among the favourites again but Faé believes the task is far from straightforward in a highly competitive tournament.
“There are eight or nine teams with squads that can win it,” Faé said in an interview. “And I feel like teams play differently against us because we are the reigning champions.
“That makes things even harder, but we are motivated to go all the way and we are confident too.”
Meanwhile, the scheduling of AFCON remains a recurring challenge for the Confederation of African Football. The last three editions have all been rescheduled, with the 2021 tournament held in 2022 due to infrastructure delays in Cameroon, and the 2023 edition shifted to early
