The
Africa Cup of Nations, also referred to as the
African Cup of Nations or
African Nations Cup, officially
CAN (
French for
Coupe d'Afrique des Nations), is the main international
association football competition in
Africa. It is sanctioned by the
Confederation of African Football (CAF), and was first held in
1957. Since
1968, it has been held every two years. The title holders at the time of a
FIFA Confederations Cup qualify for that competition.
In 1957 there were only three participating nations:
Egypt,
Sudan and
Ethiopia.
South Africa were originally scheduled to compete, but were disqualified due to the
apartheid policies of the government then in power.
Since then, the tournament has grown greatly, making it necessary to
hold a qualifying tournament. The number of participants in the final
tournament reached 16 in 1998 (16 teams were to compete in 1996 but
Nigeria
withdrew, reducing the field to 15), and since then, the format has
been unchanged, with the sixteen teams being drawn into four groups of
four teams each, with the top two teams of each group advancing to a
"knock-out" stage.
Egypt
is the most successful nation in the cup's history, winning the
tournament a record seven times (including when Egypt was known as the
United Arab Republic between 1958 and 1971).
Ghana and
Cameroon have won four titles each. Three different trophies have been awarded during the tournament's history, with
Ghana and
Cameroon
winning the first two versions to keep after each of them won a
tournament three times. The current trophy was first awarded in 2002 and
with
Egypt winning it indefinitely after winning their unprecedented third consecutive title in 2010.
As of 2013, the tournament will switch to being held in odd-numbered years so that it does not clash with the
FIFA World Cup.
[2
History
1950s–60s: Early growth of the ANC competition
The origins of the African Nations Cup date back to June 1956, when
the creation of the Confederation of African Football was proposed
during the third
FIFA congress in
Lisbon. There were immediate plans for a continental nations tournament to be held, and in February 1957, the
first African Cup of Nations took place in
Khartoum,
Sudan.
There was no qualification for this tournament, the field being made up
of the four founding nations of CAF (Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South
Africa). South Africa's insistence on selecting only
caucasian players for their squad due to that nation's
apartheid policy led to its disqualification, and as a consequence Ethiopia were handed a bye straight to the final.
[3]
Hence, only two matches were played, with Egypt being crowned as the
first continental champion after defeating hosts Sudan in the semi-final
and Ethiopia in the final. Two years later, Egypt hosted the second ANC
in
Cairo
with the participation of these same three teams. Host and defending
champions Egypt repeated as cup winners, this time downing Sudan.
The field grew to include nine teams for the
third ANC in 1962 in
Addis Ababa,
and for the first time there was a qualification round to determine
which four teams would play for the title. Host Ethiopia and reigning
champion Egypt received automatic berths, and were joined in the final
four by
Nigeria and
Tunisia.
Egypt made its third consecutive final appearance, but it was Ethiopia
that emerged as victors, after first beating Tunisia and then downing
Egypt in
extra time.
1960s: Ghanaian domination
In 1963,
Ghana
made its first appearance as it hosted the event, and won the title
after beating Sudan in the final. They repeated that as they became
champions two years later in
Tunisia—equalling Egypt as two-time winners—with a squad that included only two returning members from the 1963 team.
The
1968 competition's
final tournament format expanded to include eight of the 22 teams
entered in the preliminary rounds. The qualifying teams were distributed
in two groups of four to play single
round-robin tournaments, with the top two teams of each group advancing to semi-finals, a system that remained in use for the finals until 1992. The
Democratic Republic of Congo
won its first title, beating Ghana in the final. Starting with the 1968
tournament, the competition has been regularly held every two years in
even numbered years.
Côte d'Ivoire forward
Laurent Pokou
led the 1968 and 1970 tournaments in scoring, with six and eight goals
respectively, and his total of 14 goals remained the all-time record
until 2008. Play was covered for television for the first time during
the
1970 tournament in Sudan,
as the hosts lifted the trophy after defeating Ghana—who were playing their fourth consecutive final.
1970s: A decade of champions
Six different nations won titles from 1970 to 1980:
Sudan,
Congo-Brazzaville,
Zaire,
Morocco, Ghana, and Nigeria. Zaire's second title in the
1974 edition (they won their first as the Democratic Republic of Congo) came after facing
Zambia
in the final. For the only time to date in the history of the
competition, the match had to be replayed as the first contest between
the two sides ended in a 2–2 draw after extra time. The final was
re-staged two days later with Zaire winning 2–0. Forward
Mulamba Ndaye
scored all four of Zaire's goals in these two matches: he was also the
top scorer of the tournament with nine goals, setting a
single-tournament record that remains unmatched. Three months earlier,
Zaire had become the first black African nation to qualify to the
FIFA World Cup.
Morocco won their first title in the 1976 ANC held in Ethiopia and
Ghana took its third championship in 1978, becoming the first nation to
win three titles. In 1980,
Nigeria hosted the event and beat
Algeria to capture its first honours.
1980s: Cameroonian and Nigerian domination
Ghana's fourth continental title came in the
1982 cup tournament; they beat Algeria in the semi-finals in extra time, and faced host
Libya in the final. The match ended in a 1–1 draw after 120 minutes and Ghana won the
penalty shootout to become champions. Cameroon won their first title two years later by beating Nigeria and in the
1986 cup
they faced Egypt—absent from the final since 1962—with Egypt winning
the title on penalty kicks. Cameroon reached its third consecutive final
in the
1988 tournament
and won their second championship by repeating their 1984 victory over
Nigeria. In 1990, Nigeria lost once again as they made their third final
appearance in four tournaments, this time falling to Algeria.
1990s: The return of South Africa
The
1992 Cup of Nations
expanded the number of final tournament participants to 12; the teams
were divided into four groups of three, with the top two teams of each
group advancing to quarter-finals.
Ghanaian midfielder Abedi "Pelé" Ayew,
who scored three goals, was named the best player of the tournament
after his contributions helped Ghana reach the final; he was, however,
suspended for that match and Ghana lost to Côte d'Ivoire in a penalty
shootout that saw each side make 11 attempts to determine the winner.
Côte d'Ivoire set a record for the competition by holding each of their
opponents scoreless in the six matches of the final tournament.
The 12-team, three-group format was used again two years later, where hosts
Tunisia were humiliated by their first round elimination.
Nigeria, who had just qualified to the World Cup for the first time in their history, won
the tournament, beating
Zambia, who a year before had been struck by disaster when most of their national squad died in a
plane crash while traveling to play a
1994 World Cup qualification match. Nigerian forward
Rashidi Yekini, who had led the 1992 tournament with four goals, repeated as the top scorer with five goals.
South Africa hosted the
20th ACN competition
in 1996, marking their first ever appearance after a decades long ban
was lifted with the end of apartheid in the country and a failed attempt
to qualify in 1994. The number of final round participants in 1996 was
expanded to the current 16, split into four groups. However, the actual
number of teams playing in the final was only 15 as Nigeria withdrew
from the tournament at the final moment for political reasons.
Bafana Bafana won their first title on home soil, defeating Tunisia in the final.
The South Africans would reach the final again
two years later in
Burkina Faso, but were unable to defend their title, losing to Egypt who claimed their fourth cup.
2000s: Egypt's unprecedented Treble
The
2000 edition was hosted jointly by
Ghana and
Nigeria, who replaced the originally designated host
Zimbabwe. Following a 2–2 draw after extra time in the final, Cameroon defeated Nigeria on penalty kicks. In 2002, Cameroon's
Indomitable Lions
made the second consecutive titles since Ghana had done it in the 1960s
and after Egypt had done it before in 1957 and 1959. Again via penalty
kicks, the Cameroonians beat first-time finalists
Senegal, who also debuted in the
World Cup later that year. Both finalists were eliminated in quarter finals
two years later in
Tunisia, where the hosts won their first title, beating Morocco 2–1 in the final. The
2006 tournament was also won by the hosts,
Egypt, who reached a continental-record fifth title. The
2008 tournament was hosted by
Ghana, and saw Egypt retain the trophy, winning their record-extending sixth tournament by defeating Cameroon 1–0 in the final.
[7] Egypt set a new record in the
2010 tournament that was hosted by
Angola by winning their third consecutive title in an unprecedented achievement on the African level after defeating
Ghana
1–0 in the final, retaining the gold-plated cup indefinitely and
extending their record to 7 continental titles (including when Egypt was
known as the
United Arab Republic between 1958 and 1971).
[8]
On 31 January 2010,
Egypt set a new African record, not being defeated for 19 consecutive Cup of Nations matches, since a 2–1 loss against
Algeria in
Tunisia in 2004,
[citation needed] and a record 9 consecutive win streak.
[citation needed] Egypt also set another record on that day, where it became the first African nation to win three consecutive cups joining
Mexico,
Argentina, and
Iran who won their
continent cup 3 times in a row.
Future
Ahead of the
2008 Africa Cup of Nations
several European clubs called for a rethink of the tournament's
schedule. As it takes place during the European season, players who are
involved miss several matches for their clubs.
[9]
In January 2008,
FIFA president
Sepp Blatter
announced that he wanted the tournament to be held in either June or
July by 2016, to fit in the international calendar, although this would
preclude many countries in central and west Africa from hosting the
competition (as these months occur during their
wet season).
[10]
In May 2010, it was announced that the tournament would be moved to
odd-numbered years from 2013. This will mean the tournament will not
take place in the same year as the
World Cup. It also means there will be two tournaments within twelve months in January 2012
[11] (co-hosted by
Gabon and
Equatorial Guinea) and January 2013 (hosted by
South Africa).
[2]
On 29 January 2011,
Morocco won the bid to host the
2015 edition and
Libya won the right to host the
2013 tournament. But due to the
2011 Libyan civil war, Libya and South Africa traded years with South Africa hosting in 2013 and Libya hosting in 2017.
Trophy
Throughout the history of the Nations Cup, three different trophies
have been awarded to the winners of the competition. The original
trophy, made of silver, was the
Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem Trophy, named after the first CAF president,
Egyptian Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem. As the first winner of three Nations Cup tournaments,
Ghana obtained the right to permanently hold the trophy in 1978.
The second trophy was awarded from 1980 to 2000, and it was named
"Trophy of African Unity"or
"African Unity Cup".
It was given by the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa to the CAF
prior to the 1980 tournament and it was a cylindrical piece with the
Olympic rings over a map of the continent engraved on it. It sat on a squared base and had stylized triangular handles.
Cameroon won the Unity Cup indefinitely after they became three-time champions in 2000.
In 2001, the third trophy was revealed, a gold-plated cup designed and made in
Italy.
Cameroon, permanent holders of the previous trophy, were the first
nation to be awarded the new trophy after they won the 2002 edition.
Egypt
won the gold-plated cup indefinitely after they became three-time
champions in 2010, in an unprecedented achievement by winning three
consecutive continental titles.
list of award winners: 
