Competitions

Africa Cup of Nations

Also Known As AFCON

Citation Formats

General Reference

Sport and Games Atlas. "Africa Cup of Nations." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-sport.interactiveatlas.org/competitions/africa-cup-of-nations.

APA Style

Sport and Games Atlas. (n.d.). Africa Cup of Nations. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-sport.interactiveatlas.org/competitions/africa-cup-of-nations

BibTeX

@misc{sportandgamesatlas-africa-cup-of-nations,
  author = {Sport and Games Atlas},
  title = {Africa Cup of Nations},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-sport.interactiveatlas.org/competitions/africa-cup-of-nations},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The Africa Cup of Nations is the premier international football championship of Africa, first held in Khartoum, Sudan in February 1957 with three participating nations, Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia; Egypt won the inaugural final four goals to nil over Ethiopia. It is organized by the Confederation of African Football, founded on 8 February 1957 at the Grand Hotel in Khartoum by the football associations of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Africa, two days before the first tournament began. The tournament has been held every two years since 1968, moving to odd numbered years from 2013 onward.

Facts

Founding Year

1957 1

Founding Date

1957-02-10 1

Date of the sole semi-final of the inaugural 1957 tournament in Khartoum; the final followed on 16 February 1957.

Frequency

Biennial since 1968, held in odd numbered years since 2013 1

Host History

Sudan hosted the inaugural 1957 tournament; hosting has since rotated among African nations, including Tunisia (1965, 2004), Ghana and Nigeria as co-hosts (2000), Mali (2002), Egypt (2006, 2019), Equatorial Guinea and Gabon as co-hosts (2012), Gabon (2017), Senegal (2022), Ivory Coast (2023) and Morocco (2025). 2

Learn More

From Three Nations to a Continent: The Growth of the 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.

A tournament that began with three teams playing a handful of matches in a single city has grown, over nearly seventy years, into African football's most watched event, expanding its qualification structure repeatedly as more national federations joined CAF and as the continent's football infrastructure matured. The tournament schedule itself changed along the way: after settling into a two year cycle from 1968 onward, the competition shifted its edition years from even to odd numbers starting in 2013, a calendar adjustment made to reduce scheduling conflicts with the FIFA World Cup, which falls on the even numbered years the Cup of Nations had previously shared.

That scheduling change is a small administrative detail with a real practical purpose behind it: it freed players who represent both a European club and an African national team from facing two major tournaments compressed into the same year, a conflict that had previously strained club release agreements every four years.

Cross-Tradition Connections