The 34th edition of the African Football Championship will be played from January 13 to February 11. The record champion with 7 titles is Egypt, the reigning champion is Senegal. This tournament is organized by the Confédération Africaine de Football. The African Cup of Nations was actually scheduled for June this year, but it was postponed due to the rainy season in Ivory Coast. With the tournament now taking place in the spring, many clubs will be without some of their best players.
Tournament
54 teams had registered for the qualification, which was held in two rounds. The qualified teams can be found below. The tournament has 24 teams, each competing for the most coveted title on the African continent.
The mascot of this edition is an elephant named Akwaba, which means “welcome” in Baoulé. The elephant is also the national symbol of Ivory Coast. The official match ball was also presented on October 12 of this year. The ball named “Pokou” will be the first to be supplied by sportswear giant Puma. It lends its name to the striker Laurent Pokou, known for his 5 goals in the match against Ethiopia in 1970.
Host country
This year Ivory Coast is the country where everything will happen. Although it could have been different. Cameroon was to organize the tournament in 2019, Ivory Coast would become the host country in 2021 and Guinea in 2023. However, Cameroon was then replaced by Egypt due to insufficient preparation. The country was allowed to organize the tournament in 2021, which meant that Ivory Coast’s turn was also moved to 2023. This will be the second time that Ivory Coast has organized the tournament, and the first time since 1984.
Normally, as mentioned earlier, the tournament would have taken place in the summer of this year. For example, European teams should not have to give up their players. But due to the changing weather conditions and poor forecasts in Ivory Coast, the tournament will be played from January 13 to February 11, 2024.
Participating countries
A total of 24 countries may participate in this tournament. The preliminary rounds started in March 2022, the tournament will kick off on January 13 and end on February 11. Ivory Coast has already automatically qualified as a host country.
In Group A, Nigeria faces Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast. Nigeria can call on Victor Osimhen. The Napoli attacker is currently the top scorer in the qualifying matches with 10 goals. The standout player for Guinea-Bissau is Zinho Gano: he has been playing for this national team since June 2022 and scored 4 goals in the qualifications. This country hopes to progress beyond the group stage for the first time ever.
It will also be tough in group B, because Egypt and Ghana will face each other here. Cape Verde and Mozambique are also in this group. Mo Salah’s Egypt has been a fixture in football in Africa for some time, and is also the record holder with 7 Africa Cup titles.
In group C, title holder Senegal is preparing to play against Cameroon, Gambia and Guinea. With star Sadio Mané, Senegal once again has a good chance of finishing high. A nice poster awaits us with Senegal-Cameroon. In the second team we see André Onana, goalkeeper at Manchester United. He was removed from the selection at the end of last year after an argument with national coach Song, but was allowed to participate again from September.
Algeria will meet Angola, Burkina Faso and Mauritania in group D. In Algeria we can know some players, such as Mohamed Amoura from Union and Riyad Mahrez who played at Manchester City until this year. Amoura has proven himself time and again lately with the people of Brussels, so we also expect a similar effort in the Africa Cup. We also find a player in Mauritania who plays in Belgium: Aboubakary Koita, who plays for Sint-Truiden, was selected for the team.
Former Belgian footballer Hugo Broos is allowed to visit Mali, Namibia and Tunisia in group E with South Africa. He already became champion in 2017, but then with Cameroon. South Africa won a historic fourth world title in rugby. If the footballers can win this tournament, it would only be the second time.
Group F is the last group of national teams. Congo-Kinshasa, Morocco, Tanzania and Zambia play in this. Morocco made it further at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar than most supporters expected, ultimately reaching the semi-finals. On paper, they have hit relatively easy countries. The other three countries happen to be neighboring countries, so we can expect some rivalry there.
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