From humble beginnings in 1957 as a tournament that featured only four teams, the Africa Cup of Nations has grown into a major continental competition that earns global appeal.
It is the epitome of African Football where players not only compete to win but to make their respective countries proud.
From a modest regional football event in 1957, the Africa Cup of Nations has now transformed into a massive football extravaganza.
But how did the journey begin?
At the 29th FIFA Congress in Switzerland in June 1954, Africa was represented by four countries, namely, Egypt, Sudan, South Africa and Ethiopia. Africa was at this event was officially recognised as a zonal group with the right to have a representative on the FIFA Executive Committee, a slot that was taken by Egypt’s Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem.
Two years later, on the occasion of a FIFA Congress, CAF was born in Lisbon, Portugal.
The African delegation at the Congress in Lisbon had Abdel Aziz Salem, Mohammad Latif, Youssef Mohammad (Egypt); Abdel Halim Mohammad, Abdel Rahim Shaddad, Badawi Mohammad Ali (Sudan) and Fred Fell (South Africa). They got together on June 7 and 8 at the Avenida Hotel and decided, among other things, to create an African Football Confederation and to organize a competition among countries beginning from 1957 in Khartoum, Sudan, where the statutes and regulations of the new body would be drawn.
The first Africa Cup of Nations was held in Khartoum, Sudan, in February 1957. There was no qualification for this tournament; the field was made up of the four founding nations of CAF (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and South Africa). South Africa’s insistence on selecting only white players for its squad due to its apartheid policy led to its disqualification, and as a consequence, Ethiopia were handed a bye straight to the final.
Hence, only two matches were played, with Egypt being crowned as the first continental champion after defeating hosts Sudan in the semifinal by 2–1 and Ethiopia in the final by a score of 4–0.
The second edition witnessed the same teams taking part in the tournament hosted and won by Egypt in 1959.
Qualification Phase
At the 1962 AFCON edition in Ethiopia, CAF introduced a qualification phase. Host Ethiopia and reigning champion Egypt received automatic qualification and were joined in the final four by Nigeria and Tunisia.
Egypt made it to its third consecutive final appearance, but it was Ethiopia who won the coveted title.
In 1965, the CAF introduced a rule that limited the number of overseas players in each team to two. The rule persisted until 1982.
The 1968 edition expanded to include eight from the 22 teams that took part in the qualification rounds. At the finals, the eight teams were distributed in two groups of four to play single round-robin tournaments, with the top two teams of each group advancing to the semifinals, a system that remained in use for the finals until 1992.
The 1992 Cup of Nations then 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 the quarterfinals.
The number of final-round participants in 1996 was expanded to 16, split into four groups. However, the actual number of teams playing in the final was only 15, because Nigeria withdrew from the tournament at the final moment for political reasons.
Switching to odd years
In May 2010, it was announced that the tournament would be moved to odd-numbered years from 2013 in order to prevent the tournament from taking place in the same year as the World Cup. It also meant there were two tournaments within twelve months in January 2012 (co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea) and January 2013 (hosted by South Africa).
Tournament expansion & Date Change to Summer
Under Ahmad Ahmad’s presidency, there were discussions regarding further changes to the Africa Cup of Nations. In July 2017, two changes were proposed: switching the timing of the competition from January to June-July and expanding from 16 to 24 teams (effective from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations). On 20 July 2017, the CAF Executive Commission approved the propositions at a meeting in Rabat, Morocco.