A friend and I took a trip to Morocco last weekend to watch Senegal vs Sudan in the round of 16 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Travel was a bargain because we booked fairly early and we paid just 300 Moroccan dirhams for our tickets, which converts to £24.13. However, that is because we decided to push the boat out and go for Category 2 tickets. The cheapest tickets on sale for the game at the 75,500-seater Tangier Grand Stadium were available for as little as £12.06.
AFCON 2025 ticket prices have come as a breath of fresh air to fans of international football, especially after FIFA’s ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup caused so much fury.
Decent day trip to Tangier’s Ibn Batouta Stadium for #AFCON2025.
Free Laughing Cow cheese in the fan park more than made up for the lack of beer. pic.twitter.com/fKIHnQhmK6
— Robert Summerscales (@robsummerscales) January 3, 2026
Plenty of other English fans are turning to AFCON 2025 to provide a mid-season fix of international tournament football.
Indeed, a Hull City supporter took to social media earlier this week to reveal that they had decided to miss their team’s home game against Blackburn in the third round of the FA Cup in order to see Algeria vs Nigeria in Marrakech instead.
Scott Wood, a 36-year-old father of three, revealed that he decided to book the trip after pricing up the cost of an away day to Millwall vs Hull just before Christmas.
After working out that the Millwall game would set him back £270 — when factoring in travel, accommodation and a match ticket — Scott set his sights on a trip to an entirely different continent.
Responding to a post about Algeria vs Nigeria, Scott tweeted: “Was debating doing Millwall away last month, but £140 train, £30 match ticket, £100 hotel. Booked to go to this instead, £80 return flight, £16 match ticket, £100 hotel.
“So will be supporting Nigerian Hull centre-back Semi Ajayi in Marrakech this weekend instead of Blackburn in the FA Cup.”
A Hull City fan decided to go to AFCON 2025 instead of watching his team in the FA Cup
Are AFCON 2025 tickets still available and how much do they cost?
Tickets for two of the four quarter-finals in the AFCON 2025 bracket — Mali vs Senegal in Tangier on Friday, and Egypt vs Ivory Coast at Adrar Stadium in Agadir on Saturday — are still on sale for as little as 200 Moroccan dirhams for Category 3 seats. That is only £16.09.
Meanwhile, Category 2 and Category 1 seats are priced at 400 (£32.17) and 600 (£48.26) Moroccan dirhams respectively.
Algeria vs Nigeria in Marrakech and Cameroon vs hosts Morocco in Rabat are now sold out. However, tickets remain on sale for the first semi-final. Fans can grab a seat for Mali or Senegal vs Egypt or Ivory Coast in Tangier on January 14 for 300 (£24.13), 500 (£40.21) or 800 (£64.34) Moroccan dirhams.
The final is unsurprisingly fully booked, but tickets for the third-place play-off remain available for as little as 150 Moroccan dirhams (£12.06).
Are AFCON tickets easy to buy?
AFCON 2025 tickets are very simple to purchase. The first step is to download the Yalla app and follow the steps to create a Fan ID. This is free and involves inputting your passport information. Once your information has been verified — this usually takes no more than a few hours — you will be issued with a Fan ID.
You should then head to tickets.cafonline.com, where you can buy your tickets, with each ticket needing to be attributed to a Fan ID.
Tickets will later be accessible via another free app, called AFCON 2025 Tickets.
QPR fan Ben Horlock pictured wearing a Senegal shirt in Morocco during AFCON 2025
Is it cheaper to fly to AFCON 2025 than to attend an FA Cup game in England?
Tickets for AFCON 2025 are certainly cheaper than many FA Cup matches this weekend. For example, the cheapest seat for Manchester United vs Brighton is £54 for an adult — although Brighton have subsidised the cost for season-ticket holders, who will be charged just £44.
Despite that discount, a Brighton fan travelling to Old Trafford by train will still need to pay at least £145 to get there and back. Furthermore, the 5.30pm kick-off time at Old Trafford is likely to make an overnight stay a necessity, adding at least another £50 to the total.
So let’s say it will cost a Brighton fan without a season ticket £249 to follow their team in the FA Cup on Sunday. Could an AFCON trip really be cheaper than that?
Accommodation in Morocco is very reasonably priced. Rooms with globally recognisable hotel chains can be found for less than £50 in all major cities, while you can confidently pay around £30 per night if you are willing to book with a less familiar name.
Meanwhile, we have already established that AFCON 2025 match tickets are super cheap.
The big issue is travel. Had you, like Scott, booked your flights a few months ago then you may well have been able to get to and from your preferred Moroccan destination for as little as £80.
Prices have risen since then, but you can still book direct return flights from London to Casablanca for £160 if you fancy watching the third-place play-off on January 17. The outbound flight from Stansted arrives just over five hours before kick-off, with three flights leaving the day after the game. The first flight back to London leaves as early as 3.55am, in case you fancy staying up all night and saving your hotel money.
A budget package of just the flights and match ticket to the third-place play-off could cost as little as £172.06, with a hotel taking you just past the £200 mark.
It is worth noting that these calculations do not factor in transport to or from airports, or indeed travel to London if that is not your home city. Nevertheless, if you are based in the capital and are thrifty with transfers (and prepared to do a fair bit of walking too), then it probably is possible to go to the third-place play-off at AFCON 2025 for less than it would cost to follow Brighton to Manchester in the FA Cup this weekend.
| Man Utd vs Brighton (from Brighton) | AFCON 2025 3rd-place play-off (from London) | |
|---|---|---|
| £54 | Match ticket | £12.06 |
| £145 (via train) | Travel | £160 (flights) |
| £50 | Hotel | £30 |
| £249 | Total | £202.06 |
Alternative options, including Tangier via the “Vomit Comet”
The third-place play-off is not everyone’s cup of tea. Indeed, many players, managers and fans struggle to see the point in a game between two deflated semi-final losers.
So if you want to go to AFCON 2025 but do not fancy the battle for bronze, there are some alternative options. However, the logistics are a little more complex.
Tangier Grand Stadium, also known as the Ibn Batouta Stadium, is a magnificent arena and it is playing host to Mali vs Senegal on January 9, followed by the winner of that match against Egypt or Ivory Coast in the semi-finals five days later.
The next direct flights from the UK to Tangier cost just £53, but they are on the day of the Mali vs Senegal game and will not get you there in time for kick-off.
So if you are wanting to see that quarter-final then you will need to get creative. One option may be to fly to Tetouan and get a train. Another is to fly to Spain or Gibraltar and then get a ferry from the south coast of Spain to Tangier.
We did the latter and the boat ride from Tarifa to Tangier Ville was far from relaxing due to some choppy waters. We later learned that our vessel was nicknamed the “Vomit Comet”, and it was easy to see why, with the soundtrack of the one-hour journey consisting of nothing but crying children and vomiting adults.
If Tangier is your destination of choice then the semi-final on January 14 might be the best game to aim for. You can fly from London and back — with a change in Spain both ways — for just £118 if you leave on the Tuesday and head back on the Thursday. That means you would need two nights in a Tangier hotel. Even so, the whole trip (flights, hotels and match tickets) is doable for an estimated £202.13, not including transfers.
Senegal beat Sudan 3-1 in the round of 16 to set up an AFCON 2025 quarter-final clash with Mali
Is a trip to AFCON worth it?
If you are a fan of one of the teams involved then a trip to the Africa Cup of Nations should rank high on your footballing bucket list.
But even for neutrals, AFCON is well worth a trip. Not only is it much more affordable than other major international tournaments, some might argue that there are many reasons to suggest AFCON is better than the Euros.
There may be a few more empty seats, but there is no shortage of vibes, while every match means so much for all involved.
