The African Nations Championship is a biennial African association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 2009. The competition ensures that participating nations must only include players who play in their national league. This serves to give an opportunity for players to promote the game in their home nations.
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The competition so far has been successfully dominated by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) and Morocco. These two African nations have been the most successful, with each having two titles. Runners up to these two top teams are Tunisia, Libya and Senegal – each nation has one title.
When the tournament began in 2009 there were only eight teams participating. The second tournament saw this number double to 16, as African nations became increasingly interested. Currently the Championship is contested by a total of 18 African nations.
2025 edition
Following the meeting of the Confédération Africaine de Football Executive Committee in Nairobi, Kenya yesterday, the CAF President Dr. Patrice Motsepe confirmed the dates of the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship 2024 final tournament as being 01-28 February 2025.
The first round of Qualifiers will be played on the weekend of 25-27 October 2024. The tournament is scheduled to be hosted in East Africa. CAF will communicate in due course stadiums and other venues to be used for the competition.
On Sunday, CAF President Dr Motsepe visited some of the venues in Kenya that are being prepared for CHAN. He noted the progress made and hailed the commitment of the Kenyan Government. Dr Motsepe also said there was a need for everyone to work together with speed to ensure that all venues and facilities are ready for the Competition.
Senegal are the current champions of CHAN after they defeated hosts, Algeria two years ago in Algiers.
Significant step
A significant step in the competition’s development came when FIFA agreed to include matches of every edition of this tournament in its global rankings. The competition is held every two years and alternates with the popular Africa Cup of Nations. In 2010 CAF changed the frequency of the Africa Cup of Nations in order not to clash with the FIFA World Cup.
The idea for this tournament came in 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The aim was to give homegrown players an opportunity to represent their nations and promote their home leagues internationally.
The first tournament kicked off in 2009 in Abidjan, featuring Zambia and Ivory Coast. In Group A, Zambia and Senegal qualified, beating Tanzania and Ivory Coast. In Group B, Ghana and DR Congo qualified for the knockout stages, eliminating Zimbabwe and Libya.
Tournament expansion
African countries showed great enthusiasm for the tournament and this led to an increase in team participation. The second tournament was hosted by Sudan in 2011 while that country was embroiled in a struggle for the independence for the southern part of the country.
This edition was labelled by the media as “very irregular”, as there was a dominant team in each group. But all the second teams were decided in the third and final group stage round.
In July 2016, French energy and petroleum giant TotalEnergies secured an eight-year sponsorship package from CAF to sponsor its competitions. In February 2023, Senegal defeated Algeria in the penalty shootout to become the first West African nation to win the title, which followed on from their win in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
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