African Nations Championship

African Nations Championship

Current season, competition or edition: 2009 African Championship of Nations
Sport	Football
Founded	2007
No. of teams	8
Continent	Africa (CAF)

The African Championship of Nations is a football tournament which was announced on 11 September 2007 It will be administered by CAF and will be competed for between the best national teams of Africa, exclusively featuring players who are active in the national championships and qualified to play the ongoing season. Expatriate players, regardless of where they play, even in Africa, cannot be qualified to take part in this new African Championship of Nations.

The first tournament was held in 2009. The first hosts will be Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). The tournament will be held every two years, alternating with the African Cup of Nations. The qualifying phase will take place every even year and the final every odd year.

CAF has announced that the competition will be expanded to 16 teams for the next edition, to be held in Sudan in 2011.

Tournament Formation

The creation of the African Nations Championship responds to the desire to revive or strengthen national competitions regularly weakened by a mass exodus of top players and others who leave less good also to destinations far less remunerative and media.

CAF hopes that the players in their national competitions can experience the joy of the selection and have the opportunity to integrate one day the selection for the African Nations Cup.

This also means that Africa continues football without its own playing expatriates and national competitions that may be losing ground everywhere on the continent can improve in quality and with popularity stakes.

Qualifying

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured
Ivory Coast	00Co-hosts	002008
Morocco	01Winner of North Zone qualifying	0113 December 2008
Senegal	02Winner of West Zone A qualifying	0113 December 2008
Ghana	03Winner of West Zone B qualifying	0214 December 2008
DR Congo	04Winner of Central Zone qualifying	0214 December 2008
Tanzania	05Winner of East Zone qualifying	0113 December 2008
South Africa	06South Zone qualifying	0113 December 2008
Zambia	07South Zone qualifying	0212 December 2008

Qualifying took place in knock-out rounds with teams drawn from each group. Fixtures were played over two legs to allow domestic players to gain more international experience. The eight tournament spots were allocated the following way:

• 1 each for North Zone, West A Zone, West B Zone, Centre Zone, East Zone
• 2 for the South Zone
• 1 for the host country of the final tournament

Tournament Format

Only one team can qualify for the tournament from each group, the exception is the South Zone where 2 teams are allowed to qualify. The competition hosts automatically qualify. In total 8 nations will compete in the full tournament.

Once qualified for the competition there will be two Pools A and B drawn at random - each team will have four nations who play each other once in the group.

The 3rd and 4th placed teams in both groups are eliminated.

The winner of group A will play runner up of group B The winner of group B will play runner up of group A

A third place play off will be played between the two nations who lost the semi final ties.

The final will played between the winners of the semi final ties.

On 03/08/2009, DR Congo defeated Ghana 2-0 to become the first winners of the tournament.

Results

Year	Host nation		Final				Third Place Match
			Champion	Score	Second Place		Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
2009 Details	Ivory Coast		Ghana	3-0	DR Congo		Morocco	2-1	South Africa
2011 Details	Sudan

See also

• List of football (soccer) competitions
• Africa Cup of Nations

External links

• Confédération Africaine de Football
• Explanation of format (french)