AFCON
Africa Cup Of Nations Informative Facts –
With just hours before the battle lines are officially drawn in the CAF Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023, CAFOnline.com takes a look at some interesting records and statistics of the tournament.
- The first AFCON tournament took place in Sudan in 1957.
- Only three countries, hosts Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, took part in the first tournament in February 1957 and there was no qualifying competition.
- South Africa were also invited to the first Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 1957 but their invitation was later withdrawn as a result of the countries apartheid laws.
- Egypt defeated hosts Sudan in the first game played at the AFCON winning 2-1 on 10thJanuary 1957.
- Raafat Attia scored the first goal at an AFCON tournament when he opened the scoring for Egypt in their 2-1 Semi-final win over hosts Sudan in 1957.
- Egypt defeated Ethiopia 4-0 in the final to win the first AFCON Tournament in 1957.
- Egypt won the first two AFCON Tournaments in 1957 and 1959 while they were runners up in 1962, losing to hosts Ethiopia in the final.
- Cote d’ Ivoire are hosting the Africa Cup of Nations for a second time, they hosted the tournament for the first time in 1984.
- When the Cote d’Ivoire hosted the AFCON in 1984 eight nations participated five of those countries will be joining the hosts again they are Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria. Missing out are Malawi and Togo.
- Egypt have won the most AFCON Titles (seven), followed by Cameroon (five), Ghana (four), Nigeria (three) and the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Ivory Coast (two each).
- Egypt and Ghana have both reached 9 AFCON Finals while Egypt have won seven, Ghana have four wins while Cameroon have played in seven finals winning five.
- Cote d’Ivoire have appeared in four AFCON Finals in 1992, 2006, 2012 and 2015 and in 480 minutes of play in AFCON finals have failed to produce a single goal they won on penalties after extra time in 1992 and 2015 and lost on penalties after extra time in 2006, 2012 with all four games ending 0-0.
- Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o is the leading overall Cup of Nations scorer, notching 18 goals in six tournaments between 2000 and 2010.
- Egypt goalkeeper Essam el Hadary became the oldest player at 44 years and 21 days to feature in the tournament when he faced Cameroon in the 2017 final in Libreville as Egypt lost.
- Only once in 2013 when South Africa played out a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde has the opening game of the Africa Cup of Nations ended 0-0.
- The last host nation to reach the AFCON Finals was Egypt who won the title on home soil in 2006.
- Egypt have reached the AFCON Final in five of the last six tournaments that they have participated in winning in 2006, 2008 and 2010 while they were runners up in 2017 and the 2021 edition. They only failed to do so in 2019 as hosts.
- Four players Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, Ghanaian duo Asamoah Gyan as well as Andre Ayew and Zambia’s Kalusha Bwalya have scored in 6 AFCON Tournaments no players have scored in more editions of the competition than them.
- The 2023 AFCON will be the 34thedition of the tournament since its founding in 1957.
- The AFCON has been expanded from a 16 tournament which it has been since 1996 to a 24- team event in 2019.
- This is the third edition to have 24 teams participating.
- 16 Players have scored 17 hat-tricks at the Africa Cup of Nations but none since Soufiane Alloudi scored three goals in Morocco’s 5-1 triumph over Namibia in the 2008 Group Stages.
- Egypt have had five different players scoring six AFCON hat-trick no country has managed as many players to have scored a hat-trick at the tournament.
- The first hat-trick at the Africa Cup of Nations was scored by Ad-Diba who scored all four of Egypt’s goals in their 4-0 triumph in the 1957 final victory over Ethiopia.
- Egypt’s Hassan El-Shazly is the only player to have scored multiple hattricks at the Africa Cup of Nations, doing so in 1963 and 1970.
- Egypt are the only team to have two players score a hattrick in the same game Hassan El-Shazly and Mohammed Morsi Hussein netted all their goals in a 6-3 win over Nigeria in a 1963 group stage encounter.
- Egypt’s Ahmed Hassan and Cameroon’s Rigobert Song hold the record for the- most number of AFCON participations with each player having featured in 8 finals tournaments in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010. A record which could be tied by Ghana’s Andre Ayew at the next edition.
- South Africa finished 1st(1996), 2nd (1998) and 3rd (2000) in the first three AFCON tournaments that they participated in.
- Ghana’s Charles Gyamfi (1963–1965, 1982) and Egypt’s Hassan Shehata (Egypt 2006–2008-2010) are the only coaches to have won the title three times, Shehata is the only coach to have won the title in three successive tournaments.
- Two persons Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary (1959 as player, 1998 as coach) and Stephen Keshi, of Nigeria (1994 as player, 2013 as coach) have won the AFCON as a player and coach.
- French man Herve Renard is the only coach to have won the AFCON with two different countries Zambia in 2012 and Cote D’Ivoire in 2015.
- Senegal coach Aliou Cisse holds the unwanted record of losing in the final as both a player (2002) and coach (2019). He also now has won the tournament as a coach lifting the title with Senegal at the 2021 edition.
- France have had five different coaches win six AFCON tournament the most of any country.
- In 2004 Frenchman Roger Lemmere became the first coach to win the AFCON and the UEFA European Championship when he lead Tunisia to the title, in 2000 he lead France to the European Championships.
- 44 Different African Nations have participated at the AFCON Comoros and Gambia were debutants at the last edition in Cameroon, there are now new comers in the Cote d’ Ivoire.
- Egypt (1957), Ghana (1963), and South Africa (1996) are the only teams to have won the tournament in their debut appearance.
- Starting in 2008 Ghana have reached the AFCON Semi-finals in six of the last eight tournaments and have been beaten finalists twice in that time losing to Egypt in 2010 and Cote D’Ivoire in 2017.
- Tunisia have qualified for their 16thsuccessive AFCON tournament a run started in 1994. No team has ever managed 16 successive qualifications.
- Egypt have played more games at the AFCON than any other team (107), they have won more matches than any other team (60), Ghana have played 102 games and won 54. Cote d’ Ivoire and Nigeria will join the centenary club they have current played 99 and 97 games respectively at the finals.
- Ndaye Mulamba scored 9 goals for DR Congo at the 1974 AFCON no player has managed more in a single tournament.
- The AFCON trophy has changed three times in history the first trophy the Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem Trophy the next trophy was the African Unity trophy, a new trophy which was commissioned in 2001 after Cameroon won the previous trophy for a third time in 2000.
- Twelve former African Champions will be making their way to Cote d’Ivoire for the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations.
- The top 15 ranked African teams have all qualified for the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations.
- Five Southern African teams have qualified for the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the most the COSAFA region has had at a single finals.
- Each winner of the last 25 editions of the tournament from 1974 has qualified for the current edition of the finals, the last winner to miss out are the 1972 champions Congo.
- Every finalists from the 1984 edition has reached the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the last team to reach the final who have not qualified are 1982 runners up Libya.
By Kunle Solaja
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have taken the first step towards jointly hosting the 2032 Africa Cup of Nations after submitting an expression of interest to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The Nigerien Football Federation announced that CAF had accepted the joint declaration submitted by the three West African nations, marking the opening phase of the bidding process.
However, the acceptance of the expression of interest does not amount to an award of the hosting rights, as the countries must still undergo CAF’s comprehensive evaluation process before a final decision is made.
The three football federations unveiled their joint project following a meeting with CAF President Patrice Motsepe in the United States during the closing stages of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The proposed bid brings together the three members of the Alliance of Sahel States, reflecting their ambition to co-host one of Africa’s biggest sporting events and strengthen regional cooperation through football.
Earlier this month, CAF officially opened the bidding process for the 2028, 2032 and 2036 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, inviting all 54 member associations to submit expressions of interest. The continental governing body said all bids would be assessed based on strict technical, financial and legal criteria.
As the next stage of the process, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso must prepare a comprehensive bid dossier outlining the proposed host cities, stadiums, training facilities, transport infrastructure, accommodation capacity and security arrangements.
CAF has yet to announce the timetable for selecting the 2032 host nation(s) or reveal the full list of countries expected to compete for the hosting rights.
Should the joint bid eventually succeed, the tournament would return to Mali for the first time since it staged the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations. It would also mark a historic first for both Niger and Burkina Faso, neither of which has previously hosted the continent’s flagship football championship.
The bid underscores the growing trend of joint hosting arrangements for major football tournaments, allowing neighbouring countries to pool infrastructure and resources while expanding the reach of the competition across multiple nations.
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BY KUNLE SOLAJA, Brooklyn, NY
A document circulating widely on social media claiming that the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has stripped Morocco of its 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title and declared Senegal champions appears to be fabricated, with official CAS records showing no evidence that a final ruling has been issued.
The claim emerged months after the Senegalese Football Federation appealed a decision by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to award Morocco a 3-0 victory in the controversial AFCON final. While Senegal’s appeal is genuine, the latest official information indicates that the case remains unresolved.
One of the clearest indications that the viral document is not authentic is its case number. The circulating image bears the reference CAS 2026/A/10857, whereas CAS officially confirmed that Senegal’s appeal was registered under CAS 2026/A/12295. Such a discrepancy would not be expected in a genuine final award.
The document also incorrectly identifies the dispute as being solely between the Senegalese Football Federation and the Royal Moroccan Football Federation. CAS has officially stated that the appeal was lodged against both CAF and the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, since the challenged decision originated from CAF’s Appeals Board.
The purported ruling further claims that CAS issued its verdict on June 10, 2026, accepting Senegal’s appeal, overturning CAF’s decision and restoring the result achieved on the field, effectively awarding the continental title to Senegal.
However, a review of CAS’s official communications reveals no statement, judgment or announcement issued on that date regarding the AFCON final dispute.
The latest public update from CAS remains the statement released on March 25, 2026, in which the court confirmed only that Senegal’s appeal had been registered and that an arbitration panel had been appointed. CAS also stated that it was too early to determine a hearing date or indicate when a final decision might be delivered.
In the same communication, CAS disclosed that Senegal had requested an extension to file its appeal brief until it received the full written reasons behind CAF’s ruling. The court also reiterated that arbitration proceedings remain confidential while ongoing.
That timeline directly contradicts the claims contained in the viral document.
Further doubts about the document’s authenticity stem from the fact that it does not appear in CAS’s official database of published decisions. The image circulating online also excludes CAF from the list of respondents and exists only as a low-quality graphic featuring signatures, stamps and an Arabic translation without any verifiable official source.
CAS typically publishes non-confidential rulings through its official database or recent decisions section. No ruling relating to the AFCON final dispute has been published.
Until CAS announces otherwise, CAF’s Appeals Board decision remains the only valid and enforceable ruling in the matter.
On March 17, 2026, CAF’s Appeals Board ruled that Senegal had forfeited the AFCON final after its players left the field during the match. Invoking Articles 82 and 84 of the competition regulations, the board awarded Morocco a 3-0 victory, overturned an earlier disciplinary decision and upheld Morocco’s protest.
Senegal subsequently challenged that ruling before CAS, but the appeal has yet to produce a publicly announced outcome.
As things stand, there is no official evidence that CAS has revoked Morocco’s AFCON 2025 title or declared Senegal champions. Unless and until the Lausanne-based court issues a formal decision, CAF’s ruling remains in force, making the viral document misleading and highly likely to be fake.
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Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe has praised Morocco’s King Mohammed VI for what he described as a powerful gesture of unity and reconciliation following the royal pardon granted to Senegalese supporters convicted over offences linked to the final match of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
In a statement released on Saturday, Motsepe expressed deep appreciation on behalf of CAF’s 54 member associations, hailing the Moroccan monarch’s decision as a demonstration of football’s ability to foster peace and solidarity across the continent.
“I would like to express our deep gratitude to His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God assist him, for granting His Royal Pardon to the Senegalese supporters convicted of offences relating to the final match of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025,” Motsepe stated.
The CAF president said the pardon reflected Morocco’s enduring commitment to African unity and highlighted football’s growing role as a bridge between nations and cultures.
“CAF has consistently emphasised its commitment to utilise football to contribute to uniting our people from different racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds,” he said.
“The pardon by His Majesty King Mohammed VI is an uplifting and motivating illustration of the power of football to unite and bring our people together in Africa and worldwide.”
Motsepe also revealed that during recent visits to both Morocco and Senegal, he had been struck by the deep historical and cultural bonds shared by the two countries.
“I was amazed and impressed when I was briefed about the historic and extensive ties between the people of Senegal and Morocco,” he added.
The statement further reinforced Morocco’s rising influence within African football, especially after successfully hosting the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and positioning itself as one of Africa’s leading football destinations ahead of the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which it will co-host with Spain and Portugal.
Motsepe also extended CAF’s best wishes to Africa’s representatives at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, expressing confidence that the continent’s teams would perform strongly on the global stage.
Among the African nations mentioned were Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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