The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

championship of Africa organized by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

(CAF). The competition took place between 21 January and 12 February 2012 and was co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The bidding process for hosting the tournament ended in September 2006. The matches were played in four stadiums in four host cities, with the final played at the newly built Stade d'Angondjé in Gabon's largest city, Libreville. Fourteen teams were selected for participation via a continental qualification tournament that began in July 2010. The 2012 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations took place against the backdrop of political turmoil.

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

and

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

qualified for the tournament, even as the Arab Spring brought upheaval and regime change to both nations. Traditional African footballing nations such as reigning champions Egypt (also affected by political events), as well as Cameroon, Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa had failed to qualify. Players from third-placed Mali had pleaded for the insurgency in the north of their country to end. In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These eight teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. Both host nations,

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...

and

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

, were eliminated from the competition at the quarter-final stage. In the final, unfancied

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

defeated third-time finalists

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

after a dramatic penalty shootout, despite the fact that Ivory Coast did not concede a single goal during the entire tournament, giving Zambia their first continental title. Manager Hervé Renard dedicated their win to the members of the national team who died in a plane crash near the final's venue in Libreville in 1993.

Host selection

Bids : *Angola ''(selected as hosts for 2010)'' *Gabon / Equatorial Guinea (selected as hosts for 2012) *Libya ''(selected as hosts for 2013)'' *Nigeria ''(selected as reserve hosts for 2010, 2012 & 2013 tournaments)'' Rejected Bids : *Benin / Central African Republic *Botswana *Mozambique *Namibia *Senegal *Zimbabwe On 4 September 2006, the

(CAF) approved a compromise between rival countries to host the Africa Cup of Nations after it ruled out Nigeria. CAF agreed to award the next three editions from 2010 to Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Libya respectively. They assigned Angola in 2010, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, which submitted a joint bid in 2012, and Libya for 2014. This edition was awarded to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to rotate the hosting of the cup and give hosting chance for first-timer nations. Two-time former host Nigeria was the reserve host for the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, 2012 and 2014 tournaments, in the event that any of the host countries failed to meet the requirements established by CAF, although this ended up being unnecessary. The 2014 tournament was pushed forward to

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and subsequently held in odd-numbered years to avoid clashing with the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

Qualification

The qualification process involved ten groups of four, one of which was reduced to a group of three after the withdrawal of

Mauritania Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...

, and one group of five. The top team from each group goes through, as well as the second placed team from the group of five. The two best second place teams also qualify. At the end of the qualification process, fourteen teams would have qualified, as well as the two host nations. The first qualifiers were held on 1 July 2010.

Qualified teams

¹ FIFA World Rankings, release of 18 January 2012.

Controversies

Togo

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

were initially banned from the 2012 and

Africa Cup of Nations tournaments by CAF after they withdrew from the

tournament following an attack on their team bus. Togo appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

president

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

stepping in to mediate. The ban was subsequently lifted with immediate effect on 14 May 2010, after a meeting of the CAF Executive Committee.

were therefore free to play in the 2012 and

qualifiers.

Nigeria

On 30 June 2010, after

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

's exit from the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan punished the team for a poor campaign by imposing a two-year ban from international competition. This would have resulted in the Nigerians missing out on both the 2012 qualifying phase and the 2012 African Cup of Nations. However, on 5 July, the Nigerian government dropped the ban after FIFA threatened to impose harsher international sanctions as a result of the government interference. Nigeria competed in qualifying for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations as scheduled but failed to qualify.

Venues

The opening match, one semi-final and the third place match were held in Equatorial Guinea, while the other semi-final and the final were held in Gabon.

Draw

The draw for the final tournament took place on 29 October 2011 at the Sipopo Conference Palace in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The draw ceremony was attended by the two presidents from the host countries, President Ali Bongo of Gabon and President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. The draw saw the 16 qualified teams being pitted into four groups of four teams each. The two top teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals with the winners progressing to the semi-finals and final eventually. The two hosts were automatically seeded into pot 1. The other 14 qualified teams were ranked based on their performances during the previous three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments. For each of the last three African Cup of Nations final tournaments, the following system of points is adopted for the qualified countries: Moreover, a weighted coefficient on points was given to each of the last three editions of the Africa Cup of Nations as follows: * 2010 edition: points to be multiplied by 3 * 2008 edition: points to be multiplied by 2 * 2006 edition: points to be multiplied by 1 The teams were then divided into four pots based on the ranking. Each group contained one team from each pot. Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, as co-hosts, were automatically seeded as the top team in Group A and C respectively.

Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

Squads

Each team's squad for the tournament consisted of 23 players; only players in these squads were eligible to take part in the tournament. Each participating national association had to submit their squad by 11 January 2012 (midnight CET). Replacement of seriously injured players was permitted until 24 hours before the team in question's first match of the tournament.

Group stage

Groups A and B took place in Equatorial Guinea, while Groups C and D were held in Gabon. Notably, there was not a single goalless draw during the group stage.

Tie-breaking criteria

If two or more teams end the group stage with the same number of points, their ranking is determined by the following criteria: # points earned in the matches between the teams concerned; # goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned; # number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned; # goal difference in all group matches; # number of goals scored in all group matches; # fair play points system taking into account the number of yellow and red cards; # drawing of lots by the organising committee. ''All times are

West Africa Time West Africa Time, or WAT, is a time zone used in west-central Africa. West Africa Time is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC+01:00), which aligns it with Central European Time (CET) during winter, and Western European Summer Tim ...

(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

).''

Group A

---- ----

Group B

---- ----

Group C

---- ----

Group D

---- ----

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage,

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

and a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

were used to decide the winners if necessary.

Bracket

Quarter-finals

---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

----

Third place play-off

Final

Awards

* Player of the tournament: Christopher Katongo * Top goalscorer of the competition: Emmanuel Mayuka * Fair Player of the competition: Jean-Jacques Gosso * Fair Play award:

Team of the tournament

;Goalkeeper * Kennedy Mweene ;Defenders * Jean-Jacques Gosso * Stophira Sunzu * John Mensah * Adama Tamboura ;Midfielders * Emmanuel Mayuka * Yaya Touré * Gervinho * Seydou Keita ;Forwards * Christopher Katongo *

Didier Drogba Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He is the Top international association football goal scorers by cou ...

;Substitutes *

Boubacar Barry Boubacar "Copa" Barry (born 30 December 1979) is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Having begun his career at ASEC Mimosas, he moved to France in 2001, where he played for Rennes' reserve team. In 2003, he ...

* Rui * Youssef Msakni * Manucho * Éric Mouloungui *

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Pierre-Emerick Emiliano François Aubameyang (born 18 June 1989) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Saudi Pro League club Al Qadsiah FC, Al-Qadsiah and Captain (associat ...

* Sadio Diallo * Cheick Diabaté * Houssine Kharja * Mudather El Tahir * Rainford Kalaba * Kwadwo Asamoah

Tournament rankings

, - , colspan="11", Eliminated in the quarter-finals , - , - , colspan="11", Eliminated in the group stage , -

Scorers

;3 goals * Manucho *

* Cheick Diabaté * Houssine Kharja * Christopher Katongo * Emmanuel Mayuka ;2 goals * André Ayew * John Mensah * Abdoul Camara * Sadio Diallo * Ihaab Boussefi * Ahmed Saad Osman * Mohamed Ahmed Bashir * Mudather El Tahir * Youssef Msakni ;1 goal * Mateus * Mogakolodi Ngele * Dipsy Selolwane * Issiaka Ouédraogo * Alain Traoré *

Javier Balboa Javier Ángel Balboa Osa (born 13 May 1985) is a former professional footballer who played as a winger, most notably for Real Madrid and Benfica. After emerging at Real Madrid's youth system, he could never establish himself in its first ...

* Kily * Randy * Daniel Cousin * Bruno Zita Mbanangoyé * Éric Mouloungui * Stéphane N'Guéma * Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu * Asamoah Gyan * Mamadou Bah * Naby Soumah * Ibrahima Traoré * Wilfried Bony * Emmanuel Eboué * Gervinho * Salomon Kalou * Yaya Touré * Garra Dembélé * Seydou Keita * Bakaye Traoré * Younès Belhanda * William N'Gounou * Deme N'Diaye * Dame N'Doye *

Moussa Sow Moussa Sow (born 19 January 1986) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as a forward (association football), forward. Born in France, he represented Senegal national football team, Senegal at international level, s ...

* Issam Jemâa * Saber Khelifa * Khaled Korbi *

James Chamanga James Chamanga (born 2 February 1980) is a Zambian professional association football, football who plays as a striker (association football), striker for Red Arrows F.C., Red Arrows. Club career Chamanga's goal against the South Africa national ...

* Rainford Kalaba * Stophira Sunzu ;Own goal * Bakary Koné (playing against Ivory Coast)

Mascot

The mascot for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations was unveiled on 16 September 2011 at a ceremony in Libreville, Gabon. The mascot, named Gaguie, is a gorilla sporting the national team colors of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Match ball

The official match

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, manufactured by Adidas, was the '' Comoequa''. The name was inspired by the Komo River, which runs through the host nations, and the

Equator The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...

, which runs throughout Africa and unites the host nations.

Notes

References

External links

Africa Cup of Nations
at CAFonline.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2012 African Cup Of Nations Africa Cup of Nations tournaments International association football competitions hosted by Gabon International association football competitions hosted by Equatorial Guinea

Nations A nation is a type of social organization where a collective identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, territory, or societ ...

Africa Cup of Nations Africa Cup of Nations Africa Cup of Nations Africa Cup of Nations