Africa Cup of Nations

Not to be confused with African Nations Championship.
For the women's tournament, see Women's Africa Cup of Nations. For other uses, see Africa Cup of Nations (disambiguation).
"African Nations Cup" redirects here. For the Australian competition, see African Nations Cup of South Australia.

Africa Cup of Nations
Organising bodyCAF
Founded1957; 67 years ago (1957)
RegionAfrica
Number of teams24 (finals)
54 (eligible to enter qualification)
Current champions Ivory Coast (3rd title)
Most successful team(s) Egypt (7 titles)
Websitecafonline.com
2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
Tournaments

The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons,[1] [2] is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is sanctioned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and was first held in 1957.[3] Since 1968, it has been held every two years, switching to odd-numbered years[n 1] in 2013.

In the first tournament in 1957, there were only three participating nations: Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. South Africa who were originally scheduled to join, but all were disqualified due to the apartheid policies of the government then in power.[4] Since then, the tournament has expanded 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 the same happened with Togo's withdrawal in 2010), and until 2017, the format had been unchanged, with the 16 teams being drawn into four groups of four teams each, with the top two teams of each group advancing to a "knock-out" stage. On 20 July 2017, the 2019 edition of the tournament was moved from January to June and all future tournaments were expanded from 16 to 24 teams.[5]

Egypt is the most successful nation in the cup's history, winning the tournament seven times, with Cameroon winning five times and Ghana four times.[6] Three trophies have been awarded during the tournament's history; the current trophy was first awarded in 2002. Egypt won an unprecedented three consecutive titles in 2006, 2008, and 2010. In 2013, the tournament format was switched to being held in odd-numbered years so as not to interfere with the FIFA World Cup.[7] Ivory Coast are the tournament's current champions, having beaten Nigeria 2–1 in the 2023 final.

  1. ^ "Live score: Cameroon v Burkina Faso (African Cup of Nations) – News – AFCON 2021". Ahram Online. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  2. ^ "AFCON 2021: Teams and players to watch, start and final date". MARCA. 9 January 2022. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Africa Cup of Nations | History, Winners, Trophy, & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  4. ^ "African Cup of Nations – How it all began". BBC Sport. 14 December 2001. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
  5. ^ "Africa Cup of Nations moved to June and July and expanded to 24 teams". BBC Sport. 20 July 2017. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  6. ^ Paul Reidy (8 January 2022), "Which national team has won the Africa Cup of Nations most times?", en.as.com, archived from the original on 20 January 2022, retrieved 20 January 2022
  7. ^ "Africa Cup of Nations Cup to move to odd-numbered years". BBC Sport. 16 May 2010. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2012.


Cite error: There are <ref group=n> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=n}} template (see the help page).