The 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations starts on Saturday, with hosts Ivory Coast taking on Guinea-Bissau.
The biennial competition, which first took place in 1957, sees 24 teams battle it out to be crowned Africa’s champions.
At the last AFCON, Senegal beat Egypt on penalties to win the tournament for the first time.
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Will Aliou Cisse’s side, led by Sadio Mane and Kalidou Koulibaly, repeat their success? Or can Morocco build upon their impressive run to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar and lift the trophy? Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, who won the CAF Men’s Footballer of the Year award in December, will be hoping to guide a talented Nigeria squad to glory.
The Athletic, who will be covering the tournament from the Ivory Coast, brings you all the key information on what to expect over the next few weeks.
Let’s start with the basics…
At a Confederation of African Football (CAF) meeting in 2014, Guinea were announced as the host of AFCON 2023, with the tournament scheduled to take place in Cameroon in 2019 and the Ivory Coast in 2021.
CAF then decided to increase the number of participating teams from 16 to 24 and move the competition from January and February to the middle of the year to prevent it from clashing with European domestic leagues.
Egypt replaced Cameroon as host in 2019 because of political instability and stadiums not being ready. Cameroon then took responsibility for the 2021 tournament, but it was pushed back by six months to the start of 2022 to avoid the tropical rainstorm season in western Africa.
The Ivory Coast was awarded the 2023 edition, but it is impacted by the same extreme weather as Cameroon, so it was delayed until January 2024. Guinea turned out to be the biggest loser with all this rescheduling and eventually had the 2025 tournament stripped from it and handed to Morocco.
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The Radar - The Athletic’s scouting guide to the Africa Cup of Nations
What is the format?
The 24 teams, who can name squads of up to 27 players, are split into six groups of four. Algeria have been drawn in Group D with Burkina Faso, Angola and Mauritania, for example. They will play each other once and the top two teams in each group will advance to the knockout stages.
They will be joined by the four best third-placed sides, which means only one-third of the teams get eliminated in the group stages. The rest of the tournament will be single-legged knockout ties, culminating in the final on Sunday, February 11.
Which stadiums will host matches?
Matches will be played at six stadiums across five different cities: Abidjan, Yamoussoukro, Bouake, San Pedro and Korhogo. The Ivory Coast hosted AFCON in 1984 and the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan staged games. The ground has been renovated for this tournament.
The opening match and the final will be held at the Olympique Alassane Ouattara Stadium, which is named after the country’s president. It was built for the tournament and construction was completed in October 2020. It has an athletics track around the side of the pitch and can hold up to 60,000 spectators.
The remaining four grounds — the Stade de la Paix, Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium, Charles Konan Banny Stadium and Laurent Pokou Stadium — were built for this tournament, too.
What are the groups?
Which teams are the favourites?
Morocco made history in Qatar by becoming the first African side to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup. They beat Belgium and Canada in the group stages and eliminated Portugal and Spain before a 2-0 defeat to eventual runners-up France. Head coach Walid Regragui has a strong squad, which includes Paris Saint-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi, and they will be expected to go far in the competition.
Cameroon’s chances of success have been dented after Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo suffered an ankle injury that has ruled him out for three months.
Egypt have won the tournament a record seven times, but it has been more than a decade since their last triumph. They lost the final in 2017 and 2022 and will be hoping Mohamed Salah can take them one step further this time. For Salah, it is the one big hole on his glittering CV.
Senegal possess an experienced squad and will be confident of defending their crown.
Nigeria’s strength in depth up front is frightening. Osimhen is their star player, but he will be supported by AC Milan winger Samuel Chukwueze, Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman and many more. If head coach Jose Peseiro can strike the right balance between defence and attack, then Nigeria should go far, but their form over the past 12 months has been underwhelming.
Who are the star players?
The obvious names to look out for are Osimhen, Salah, Mane, Hakimi and Ghana’s superstar in the making, Mohammed Kudus. Manchester United’s goalkeeper, Andre Onana, is crucial to Cameroon and former Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez spearheads Algeria’s attack. Serhou Guirassy has taken the Bundesliga by storm this season, scoring 17 goals in 14 appearances for Stuttgart, and will be hoping to inspire Guinea, although they are sweating on his fitness after he injured his knee in a friendly.
There are lots of talented young players hoping to make their mark, too, including Ernest Nuamah (Ghana, 20 years old), Lamine Camara (Senegal, 20) and Yankuba Minteh (The Gambia, 19). You can read The Athletic’s standout picks for the tournament in The Radar, which will be released on Friday.
Are any notable players missing?
Ghana’s midfielder Thomas Partey is potentially the highest-profile player missing. The 30-year-old has not made an appearance since October due to a hamstring injury and will continue his rehabilitation with Arsenal. West Ham United winger Said Benrahma has been excluded from Algeria’s squad despite being fit, while Victor Boniface and Wilfred Ndidi are unavailable for Nigeria due to injury.
Galatasaray winger Wilfried Zaha was not called up for the Ivory Coast by Jean-Louis Gasset, but Sebastien Haller and Simon Adingra have been included in the squad despite struggling with ankle and hamstring issues.
One thing to keep an eye out for is whether Onana features for Cameroon in their opening game against Guinea next Monday. The 27-year-old has come to an agreement with the country’s football federation that means he is allowed to play for Manchester United in their Premier League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford 24 hours earlier. Onana is due to immediately fly to the Ivory Coast once the game finishes and faces a race against time.
Which group stage matches should I not miss?
The Gambia, the tournament’s lowest-placed side in FIFA’s world rankings (126th), have the tough task of facing Senegal in their opening match on January 15. They reached the quarter-finals at the last edition, so do not rule out their chances of pulling off a shock.
Keep January 18 free as there are two entertaining group-stage games. The Ivory Coast take on Nigeria in front of what will surely be a sell-out crowd in Abidjan, then a few hours later, in a different part of the city, Egypt take on Ghana.
The following day, Senegal face Cameroon in a big-name Group C clash. Morocco’s fixture against DR Congo on January 21 will have a significant bearing on who qualifies top of Group F.
Which underdog stories should I keep an eye on?
Tanzania, who are the second-lowest ranked side (121st), have a squad that includes players from the non-League divisions of English football and they will be facing Morocco’s stars in their opening fixture. Cape Verde’s 26-man squad play in 17 different countries and includes the former Manchester United winger Bebe (now playing for Rayo Vallecano in La Liga).
Where can you watch on TV?
According to CAF’s website, the tournament will be shown in more than 150 different countries.
In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, every match will be broadcast live on Sky Sports, while for viewers in the United States, beIN Sports will be their channel.
At one stage, though, a disagreement between CAF and beIN Sports, which broadcasts the competition in the Middle East and North Africa, threatened to impact its coverage, but the dispute was resolved in November.
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SuperSport, which is one of the biggest broadcasters in Sub-Saharan Africa and has shown previous editions, missed out on the rights to New World TV, which is based in Togo. CAF president Patrice Motsepe described the deal with New World as “the biggest investment by a pan-African broadcaster in CAF’s history”. However, it means millions of fans based in South Africa who are customers of SuperSport currently have no information on how they can watch AFCON.
Will there be VAR?
A VAR system will be used throughout the tournament. CAF released the full list of 68 match officials last month and they are all from Africa.
How to follow with The Athletic
Simon Hughes will be flying out to the Ivory Coast to report on all of the best moments from the group stages, then Jay Harris will switch places with him for the knockout rounds.
As well as our player guide, The Radar, in the next few days, we will be sharing stories on Eritrea — the nation where footballers try to escape tyranny — and hearing from players who were pressured not to go to AFCON. There is a deep dive into the life of Osimhen from Nick Miller, while Tom Burrows spoke to friends of the victims of the Zambian national team’s plane crash in 1993.
We have lots of other in-depth content lined up and if there is anything you would like us to cover, then please let us know in the comments.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)