Africa Cup
The Afrika Cup (officially Africa Cup of Nations and French Coupe d’Afrique des Nations; German-language FIFA term Afrikanischer Nationen-Pokal, in the German-speaking world more rarely also is a soccer tournament organized by the African Football Confederation CAF, in which the African national soccer associations determine their continental champions. Senegal is the current title holder of the Africa Cup.
The Africa Cup of Nations is to be distinguished from the African Nations Championship, a tournament in which only players who play in the national championships of their home countries are eligible to play.
The Africa Cup was launched in 1957. Since 1968, the finals have been held every two years. In 2010, with effect from 2013, CAF decided to hold the Africa Cup in odd-numbered years so that it does not coincide with the World and European Championships.
When it was first held in 1957, there were only three participants: Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia; South Africa wanted to take part but was excluded due to apartheid policies. Since then, the tournament has grown steadily, necessitating a qualifying round. In 2019, 24 teams participated in the Africa Cup for the first time.[2] Since then, the following mode has been used: teams play a preliminary round in six groups of four teams each. The top two teams in each group and the top four third-placed teams in each group reach the final round, which — starting with the round of 16 — is played in a knockout system.
The most successful nation in previous editions of the Africa Cup has been Egypt, which has secured the title a total of seven times, winning three tournaments in a row in 2006, 2008 and 2010. Cameroon with five and Ghana with four titles follow in second and third place.
