Born Two Days Before Kickoff: CAF and the First Africa Cup of Nations

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

The Confederation of African Football and the Africa Cup of Nations share a birth week rather than a founding decade apart, an unusually tight sequence among the competitions in this wave. CAF was established on 8 February 1957 at the Grand Hotel in Khartoum by the football associations of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Africa, a decision that followed the 1954 FIFA Congress's recognition of Africa as its own football confederation. Two days later, on 10 February 1957, the first Africa Cup of Nations kicked off in the same city, contested by three of the four founding nations, since South Africa was excluded from play over its apartheid era racial selection policy even as it remained a founding member of the confederation on paper.

Egypt won that first tournament, beating Ethiopia four goals to nil in the final, a result that opened a period of early Egyptian dominance in a competition that has since grown from three participating nations to a continent wide championship contested by dozens.