The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, will be the 27th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football championship of Africa (CAF). It is scheduled to take place between 10 and 31 January 2010 in Angola.[1][2] The tournament sees hosts Angola joined by 15 nations who successfully advanced from the qualification process that began in October 2007 and involved 53 African national teams.
Host selection
Angola was awarded the right to host the tournament by CAF in a decision to rotate the hosting of the Cup and allow new nations like Angola, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea a chance to host the tournament. Bids from Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Senegal were rejected. Gabon and Equatorial Guinea were also awarded the hosting rights to the 2012 Nations Cup, while Libya would be hosting the event for the second time in 2014. Two-time former hosts, Nigeria is the reserve host for the 2010, 2012 and 2014 Nations Cups, in event that any of the host countries fail to meet the requirements established by CAF.
The Confederation of African Football announced that the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification would also be the qualification for this tournament. Despite the fact Angola are the host of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, they also needed to participate in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification. A similar situation was true for South Africa. Although they will be the hosts for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, they still needed to compete in the qualification tournament in order to qualify for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations[3].
On January 8th, the Togo team bus was attacked whilst travelling to its First game in Cabinda by a local Militia group, although the driver of the bus was killed, 4 coaches and 2 players were injured in. The Angolian Government had called it a terrorist attack from the rebels of the area. Whilst being Interviewed, midfielder Alaixys Romao had said to a local News company "No one wants to play, we're not capable of it. We're thinking first about the health of our injured because there was a lot of blood on the ground." No official release has yet been made by the AFC, Togo national team about the teams withdrawal, but a press release made by Manchester City Football Club says that Emmanuel Adebayor was unharmed during the attack and Aston Villa Football Club also made a press release saying that Midfielder Moustapha Salifou was "shaken but OK". The team were suppose to play Ghana in two days after the attack, but it is speculated that the game may be delayed for a few days.
[4]
The official match ball for the 2010 African Cup of Nations is Adidas Jabulani Angola, a modified version of Adidas Jabulani, it is coloured to represent the colours of Angola.
Draw
The draw for the final tournament took place on 20 November 2009 at the Talatona Convention Centre in Luanda, Angola. The 16 teams were split into four pots, with Pot 1 containing the top four seeded nations. Angola were seeded as hosts and Egypt as reigning holders. The remaining 14 teams were ranked based on their records in the three last editions of the competition. Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire had the two strongest records and so completed the top seeded Pot 1. The four seeded teams were placed into their groups in advance of the final draw.[5]
Angola
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Tunisia
Algeria
Egypt
Cameroon
Gabon
Nigeria
Mali
Benin
Burkina Faso
Mozambique
Zambia
Togo
Malawi
Winners of Group A
