1950s–60s: Origin and early years 's captain
Hanafy Bastan holding the first African Cup of Nations trophy in 1957.|220x220px The origin of the African Nations Cup dates from June 1956, when the creation of the Confederation of African Football was proposed during the third
FIFA congress in
Lisbon. There were immediate plans for a continental tournament to be held and, in February 1957, the
first Africa Cup of Nations was held in
Khartoum,
Sudan. There was no qualification for this tournament, the field being made up of the four founding nations of
CAF (
Egypt,
Sudan,
Ethiopia, and
South Africa). South Africa's insistence on selecting only
white players for its squad due to its
apartheid policy led to its disqualification, and as a consequence Ethiopia were handed a bye straight to the final. In 1965, the CAF introduced a rule that limited the number of overseas players in each team to two. The rule persisted until 1982. The
1968 competition's final tournament format expanded to include eight of the 22 teams entered in the preliminary rounds. The qualifying teams were distributed in two groups of four to play single
round-robin tournaments, with the top two teams of each group advancing to semi-finals, a system that remained in use for the finals until 1992. The
Democratic Republic of Congo won its first title, beating Ghana in the final. Starting with the 1968 tournament, the competition was regularly held every two years in even-numbered years; this ended with the 2012 tournament, which was followed by a tournament in 2013, and successor editions in each odd-numbered year.
Ivory Coast forward
Laurent Pokou led the 1968 and 1970 tournaments in scoring, with six and eight goals respectively, and his total of 14 goals remained the all-time record until 2008. Play was covered for television for the first time during the
1970 tournament in Sudan,
Bafana Bafana won their first title on home soil, defeating Tunisia in the final. The South Africans would reach the final again
two years later in
Burkina Faso, but were unable to defend their title, losing to Egypt who claimed their fourth cup.
2000s: Egypt's unprecedented treble . The
2000 edition was hosted jointly by
Ghana and
Nigeria, who replaced the originally designated host
Zimbabwe. Following a 2–2 draw after extra time in the final, Cameroon defeated Nigeria on penalty kicks. In 2002, Cameroon's
Indomitable Lions won their second consecutive title. This was the first repeat since Ghana had done it in the 1960s and after Egypt had done it before in 1957 and 1959. The Cameroonians beat first-time finalists
Senegal, who also debuted in the
World Cup later that year, via
penalty kicks. Both finalists were eliminated in the quarter-finals
two years later in
Tunisia, where the hosts won their first title, beating Morocco 2–1 in the final. The
2006 tournament was also won by the hosts,
Egypt, who reached a continental-record fifth title. Ahead of the
2008 Africa Cup of Nations several European clubs called for a rethink of the tournament's schedule. Given that it takes place during the European season, players who are involved miss several matches for their clubs. In January 2008,
FIFA president
Sepp Blatter announced that he wanted the tournament to be held in either June or July by 2016, to fit in the international calendar, although this would preclude many countries in central and west Africa from hosting the competition (for these months occur during their
wet season). The
2008 tournament was hosted by Ghana, and saw Egypt retain the trophy, winning its record-extending sixth tournament by defeating Cameroon 1–0 in the final.
2010s: Switch to odd years players celebrate after winning the
2015 AFCON.Egypt set a new record in the
2010 tournament (hosted by
Angola) by winning its third consecutive title in an unprecedented achievement on the African level after defeating Ghana 1–0 in the final, retaining the gold-plated cup indefinitely and extending its record to seven continental titles (including when Egypt was known as UAR between 1958 and 1961). Egypt became the first African nation to win three consecutive cups and joined
Mexico,
Argentina, and
Iran who also won their
continent cup three times in a row. On 31 January 2010,
Egypt set a new African record, not being defeated for 19 consecutive Cup of Nations matches, since a 2–1 loss against
Algeria in
Tunisia in 2004, and a record 9 consecutive win streak. In May 2010, it was announced that the tournament would be moved to odd-numbered years from 2013 in order to prevent the tournament from taking place in the same year as the
World Cup. It also meant there were two tournaments within twelve months in January 2012 (
co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea) and January 2013 (
hosted by South Africa).
Ongoing fighting in Libya ultimately prompted CAF to move the
2017 tournament to Gabon). In 2012, Zambia won the final after a penalty shootout against Ivory Coast. This drew increased media attention since the match took place in Gabon, only a few hundred meters from the crash site of the
1993 air disaster of their national team. The 2013 tournament was won by Nigeria, beating first time finalists Burkina Faso. In 2014–15, the
West African Ebola virus epidemic disrupted the tournament. All football activities in
Liberia were suspended, and the
Antoinette Tubman Stadium in
Monrovia was converted into an Ebola treatment unit. The
2015 Africa Cup of Nations was scheduled to be held in Morocco, but they refused to hold the tournament on the allotted dates due to concerns of the Ebola outbreak, so it was moved to Equatorial Guinea. In July 2016,
Total secured the rights to an eight-year sponsorship package to support 10 of
CAF's principal competitions. This began with the
2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon which was renamed the "Total Africa Cup of Nations".
Since 2019: Tournament expansion and date change In July 2017, under
Ahmad Ahmad's presidency, two changes were approved: switching the timing of the competition from January to the Northern Hemisphere summer and expanding from 16 to 24 teams (effective from the
2019 Africa Cup of Nations). The prize money awarded to the
2019 Africa Cup of Nations winner amounted to $4.5 million while runners-up
Senegal got $2.5 million. Match days 3 and 4 of the
2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, which was slated from 25 to 30 March 2020, were postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The
2021 Africa Cup of Nations tournament, hosted by
Cameroon, was postponed to 2022 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The Confederation of African Football increased the cash prize for the winner from $4.5 million to $5 million for the
2021 Africa Cup of Nations while the second-best team would get $2.75 million. In that tournament,
Salima Mukansanga became the first woman to referee at the Africa Cup of Nations, leading an all-woman officiating team of Fatiha Jermoumi (Morocco), Carine Atemzabong (Cameroon), and Bouchra Karboubi (Morocco) as the VAR. The
2023 edition of the Cup was held from January 2024, mainly due to the heat in host Ivory Coast. The
2025 event, the 35th edition, was held in December 2025 and January 2026, with the timing due to the new quadrennial
FIFA Club World Cup tournament. == Format ==