2023 Africa Cup Of Nations

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (also referred to as AFCON 2023 or CAN 2023) is scheduled to be the 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The tournament is scheduled to be hosted by Ivory Coast, the second time the country would host the competition. The Confederation of African Football initially changed the dates of the tournament to June and July rather than the usual January, which first came into play in the 2019 tournament. It would have allowed the tournament to not conflict with other major tournaments, as well as allowing big name players to play for their nations in the tournament without missing games for their European club side.

On 3 July 2022, it was confirmed that the competition would be postponed from June–July 2023 to January 2024 due to weather concerns during summer in Ivory Coast.

Senegal are the defending champions.

Host selection

Bids:
*Guinea
*Zambia
*Ivory Coast
*Morocco
*Tunisia

Rejected Bids:
*Uganda
*Sudan
*Senegal
*Cameroon

After the final vote at the CAF Executive Committee meeting, on 20 September 2014, the CAF announced the hosts for the 2019, 2021 and 2023 AFCON tournaments: 2019 to Cameroon, 2021 to the Ivory Coast, and 2023 to Guinea.

The announcement of the 2023 hosts was unscheduled. Guinea was one of the bidders for the 2019 and 2021 tournaments, whose host countries were scheduled to be announced on that day. A CAF spokesperson told the BBC that, on the basis of Guinea's presentation "and commitment", the committee "decided to exercise its power to make an immediate decision."

Host change

On 30 November 2018, CAF stripped Cameroon from hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. However, former CAF President Ahmad Ahmad told Cameroon accepted to host the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. Consequently, Ivory Coast, original hosts of 2021, would host the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, and Guinea, original hosts of 2023, would host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

On 30 January 2019, CAF President confirmed the timetable shift, after a meeting with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast.

Qualification

Qualified teams

The following teams have qualified for the tournament.

Venues

With the Africa Cup of Nations expanded to 24 teams, six venues are expected to be used. The CAF has established the following requirements for stadiums:

In September 2017, the Ivory Coast government launched a public tender for the venues of the competition. This includes public tender requested bids for renovating and expanding the existing Stade Félix-Houphouët Boigny and Stade de la Paix (Peace Stadium) of Bouaké, and building new stadiums in the cities of Korhogo, San Pedro and Yamoussoukro. The three new stadiums were to have a capacity of 20,000 each.

In addition to the renovation or construction of stadiums, the tender included the renovation or construction of training facilities in the host cities: 8 in Abidjan, and 4 in Bouaké, Korhogo, Yamoussoukro and San Pedro. It also included the construction of 96 villas (5 rooms per villa) in the cities of Bouaké, Korhogo, Yamoussoukro and San Pedro. In addition, bids were to be submitted to build a 3-star hotel of 50 rooms in the city of Korhogo.

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Ranking of third-placed teams

The four best third-placed teams from the six groups advance to the knockout stage along with the six group winners and six runners-up.

References

External links

AFCON 2023 ORGANIZATION COMMITTEE official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Africa Cup Of Nations 2023

2023
Nations
International association football competitions hosted by Ivory Coast
January 2024 sports events
Scheduled association football competitions