2017 Africa Cup of Nations


The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the Total Africa Cup of Nations, Gabon 2017, was the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football. The tournament was scheduled to be hosted by Libya, until CAF rescinded its hosting rights in August 2014 due to ongoing war in the country. The tournament was instead hosted by Gabon. This event was also part of the Africa Cup of Nations 60th Anniversary.
Cameroon won their fifth title after defeating seven-time champions Egypt 2–1 in the final. Burkina Faso finished third after beating Ghana 1–0 in the third place play-off.
As champions, Cameroon qualified for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. Tournament hosts Gabon and defending champions Ivory Coast were both eliminated in the group stage after failing to win any of their three group games.

Host selection

First bidding

Bids :
NationLast hosted
Botswana-
Cameroon1972
DR Congo-
Guinea-
Morocco1988
South Africa1996
Zambia-
Zimbabwe-

CAF received 3 bids before 30 September 2010, the deadline, to host either the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations or 2017 from DR Congo, Morocco and South Africa. All three bids were originally put on a shortlist. CAF then began an inspection procedure, on November and December 2010, intending to visit each bidding country to view stadiums, infrastructure, and football interest. They inspected the DR Congo first. Shortly after the inspection, DR Congo informed CAF that they would be withdrawing their bids for both the 2015 and 2017 Africa Cup of Nations tournaments. Morocco was the next country to be inspected, with CAF visiting the country in early November 2010. South Africa was inspected in December 2010.
NationLast hosted
Morocco1988
South Africa1996

On 29 January, during the 2011 CAF Super Cup, the CAF executive committee decided that Morocco would host 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, while the 2017 edition would be held in South Africa. However, due to the Libyan Civil War, Libya and South Africa traded years with South Africa hosting in 2013 and Libya hosting in 2017.

Second bidding

Bids :
After Libya was withdrawn as the venue on 22 August 2014, the CAF announced that they would be receiving applications for the new hosts until 30 September 2014.
Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, and Ghana, were determined by the CAF to be compliant with the host criteria. Later, Egypt withdrew.
Other countries which expressed an interest but did not bid included Ethiopia, Mali, and Tanzania. Kenya discussed a joint bid with neighbors Rwanda and Uganda, but eventually bid alone.
On 8 April 2015, CAF President Issa Hayatou announced Gabon as the replacement hosts following votes by the CAF Executive Committee.

Qualification

The draw for the qualification stage took place on 8 April 2015, immediately after the announcement of the host nation. The host nation team were also drawn into a group and would play games against those in that group; however, those matches would only be considered as friendlies and not counted for the standings.
51 nations entered the qualifying stage with Eritrea and Somalia declining to enter and Chad withdrawing.
Due to the cancellation of Morocco being hosts of the 2015 edition, the national team of Morocco were originally banned by CAF from entering the 2017 and 2019 Africa Cups of Nations. However, the ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowing Morocco to enter the tournament.
Three-time champions Nigeria did not qualify.

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
TeamMethod of
qualification		Date of
qualification		Finals
appearance		Last
appearance		Previous best
performance		FIFA ranking
at start of event
2015 108
2013 57
2015 39
2015 62
2015 33
2010 35
2015 54
none68
2006 103
2015 64
2015 34
1978 73
2015 53
2015 36
2015 49
2013 90

Venues

The four venues were confirmed in October 2016.
LibrevilleFranceville
OyemPort-Gentil
Stade de l'AmitiéStade de Franceville
Stade d'OyemStade de Port-Gentil
Capacity: 40,000Capacity: 25,000
Capacity: 20,500Capacity: 20,000

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Squads

Each team could register a squad of 23 players.

Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
;Referees
;Assistant referees
Only the hosts received an automatic qualification spot, the other 15 teams qualified through a qualification tournament. At the finals, the 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams each. The teams in each group play a single round robin. After the group stage, the top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinals. The semifinal losers will play in third place match, while semifinal winners will play in final.

Draw

The draw took place on 19 October 2016, 18:30, in Libreville, Gabon.
The seedings approved by the Organising Committee of the Africa Cup of Nations at its meeting on Monday, 26 September 2016 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, was determined taking into account the performance of the qualified teams during the following competitions:
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4




























Group stage

Group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.
All times are local, WAT.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points. If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order :
  1. Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
  2. Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
  3. Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
  4. If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to teams concerned, two or three teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between these teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 will apply;
  5. Goal difference in all games;
  6. Goals scored in all games;
  7. Drawing of lots.

    Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stages, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time was played and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner, except for the play-off for third place where no extra time was played.

Bracket

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Statistics

Goalscorers

;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
;Own goals
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
;Total Man of the Competition
;Top Scorer
;Fair Play prize
;CAF Team of the tournament
GoalkeeperDefendersMidfieldersForwardsSubstitutes
Fabrice Ondoa Kara Mbodji
Ahmed Hegazi
Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui		 Charles Kaboré
Wakaso Mubarak
Bertrand Traoré
Christian Atsu
Mohamed Salah		 Christian Bassogog
Junior Kabananga		 Essam El-Hadary
Cheikhou Kouyaté
Préjuce Nakoulma
Aristide Bancé
Benjamin Moukandjo
Zezinho
Mbark Boussoufa

Final Standing

Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Sponsorship

In July 2016, Total secured an eight-year sponsorship package from the Confederation of African Football to support ten of its principal competitions, including the Africa Cup of Nations.

Match Ball

took over as the official match ball supplier following the expiration of the contract between Adidas and CAF. CAF Mitre Delta Hyperseam was the name of the official match ball.

Mascot

The official mascot of the tournament was "Samba", a black panther.

Controversy

Website attack

On 21 January, Russian hacking group New World Hackers claimed to have taken the official CAF website down in response to CAF's decision to choose Gabon as host nation. "We did this in protest against Gabon", the person claiming to be one of the hackers wrote in an email. "They are running the Africa Cup in a country where the dictator Ali Bongo is killing innocent people!"

Media

Broadcasting

- Available in the following countries: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia