The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is the international football competition between the top nations of Africa. The tournament is held every two years and is set to be held this year between the 13th of January to 11th of February. The tournament was supposed to be in June-July of 2023 but was postponed by the Confederation of African football (CAF) because that is the height of the rainy season in the Ivory Coast, where the tournament is set to be played and so was moved forward for the second time in a row. This has caused much controversy between clubs as they have to release the players playing in the competition for a month, which could have a dramatic impact on a clubs season. Putting that to one side, what is the AFCON competition and who are some of the past winners, and who could be crowned kings of Africa in a month’s time…

 

The competition was first introduced in 1957 and only included 4 teams; Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa and Sudan (the hosts). South Africa were actually disqualified from the competition due to apartheid which left Ethiopia with a ticket to the final, however they were battered by Egypt 4-0, crowning them the first AFCON champions.

 

Over the years, the competition has grown in popularity and the number of teams in the competition, with 24 teams in the competition and millions of viewers tuning in to watch the games.

 

Egypt currently hold the record for most competition wins with 7, with Cameroon close behind with 5 and Ghana with 4.

 

As we approach the 34th edition of the competition who is looking likely to win it all? Egypt will be hoping that they can win it for the 8th time, however current holders Senegal look even stronger and could win back to back. However, my bid is with Morocco. In 2022 Morocco became the first African team to get to the semi finals of a world cup where they were defeated 2-0 by France. I think that they are the strongest side and look in pole position to triumph and claim there second AFCON victory ever.