2023 Africa Cup of Nations


The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations 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. The tournament is scheduled to be hosted by Ivory Coast, the second times the country to host the competition. The Confederation of African Football changed the dates of the tournament to June and July rather than the usual January, which will come into play as of the 2019 Tournament. It will allow 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.

Host selection

Bids:
Rejected Bids:
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 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, 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 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Qualification

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the tournament.
TeamMethod of
qualification		Date of
qualification		Finals
appearance		Last
appearance		Previous best
performance		FIFA ranking
at start of event
2019

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:
Number Of StadiumsCapacity
2 Stadiums40,000
2 Stadiums20,000
2 Stadiums15,000