ADDIS ABABA – The 32nd editions of the African Cup of Nations was opened on June 21 and it will come to an end on 19 July.
The first edition of the African Cup of nations was hosted by Sudan in 1957. The participating teams were Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt and only two games were played. Egypt defeated the hosts 2-1 in the semifinal and Ethiopia automatically advanced to the final following the ban on South Africa. Egypt’s Ad Diba scored all four goals to beat Ethiopia 4-0 and lift the first trophy.
In 62 years the number of participants dramatically rose to 24 and over 30 games are set to be played this time.
After 62 years Egypt are still the hopefuls to take the 32nd edition for the record 8th time but Ethiopia and Sudan remain spectators of this big continental event. Ghana and Cameroon with four titles each come next.
The 1959 second edition that was hosted by the United Arab Republic, a confederation of Egypt and Syria also had only three participating teams; Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. The difference with 1957 was that matches were played in a round robin format among three teams. The home team won two matches, 4-0 against Ethiopia and 2-1 over Sudan, to top the group.
Egypt’s third win in a row was interrupted by the host of the third edition of the African Cup of nations Ethiopia in 1962. This time one big difference was that nine teams had taken part in the tournament leading to the introduction of a qualification round,
Ethiopia was the winner of the 1962 competition after beating the defending champions Egypt 4-2 after extra time. Ethiopia had to beat Tunisia 4-2 to get into the final. The Ethiopian captain Luchiano Vassalo received the trophy from the hands of Emperor Haileselassie.
The then Haileselassie first stadium, renamed as Addis Ababa stadium was newly built for the game at the cost of less than Birr 900, 000 (Nine hundred thousand birr.)
The 32nd edition of firsts
For the first time the participating teams rose to 24 in the 32nd edition. Madagascar, Burundi and Mauritius are the first entry in to the parade. Surprisingly enough, Madagascar has joined the last 16 of the African Cup. In this Egypt African Cup all participating teams receive 475 thousand USD each and the champions will collect 4.5 million USD.
This is the fifth time for Egypt to host the African Nations Cup. Previously they hosted in 1959, 74, 86 and 2006. Ethiopia also hosted three times: 1962, 67 and 76.
In all the 31 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations only 14 different countries lifted the trophy.
Ghana’s era and increase of participating teams
The hosts Ghana again took the home advantage to win the title in 1963. The tournament which was reformed for the first time to involve two groups each made up of three
teams. Then Ghana added their second title beating Tunisia 3-2 in the 5th edition in 1965.
When Ethiopian hosted the 6th edition in 1968, Congo Kinshasa took title beating Ghana 1-0 in the final. Since the 6th edition two things were changed; the first was the increase of the participating teams to eight and second the tournament was changed to be played on the year of even number.
Sudan beating Ghana 1-0 in 1970 to take title while in 1972 the People’s Republic of Congo won trophy beating Mali 2-1.
The 1974 ninth edition African Cup of Nations which was hosted by Egypt had shown a different character: the final was a 2-2 tie between Zaire and Zambia. So they had to go for a replay two days later. This was the second title for Zaire, having won for the first time in 1968 as Congo-Kinshasa in Addis Ababa.
Morocco won tenth edition of the competition in 1976 that was hosted in Ethiopia. Ghana won the third title after defeating Uganda 2-0 at the 11th edition final in 1978.
Ghana returned to their winning ways to claim a fourth title in 1982 beating Libya in the final. Libya was the host.
Egypt and Cameroon’s era
Cameroon finally got the first title
in 1984, defeating Nigeria 3-1 in the final during the 14th edition. The host was Ivory Coast.
Egypt took 27 years to add the third title beating Cameroon 3-1 in the final in 1986. Cameroon gained beating Nigeria in 1988 during the 16th edition.
In 1990 the host Algeria beat Nigeria 1-0 in the 17th edition. Ivory Coast beat Ghana 11-10 in penalty shootouts in the final of the 1992 while Nigeria won 2-1 over Zambia in 1994. The host was Tunisia. The new comers South Africa got their first win over Tunisia in 1996.
In 1998 Egypt took for the fourth title beating South Africa 2-0 while in 2000 Cameroon with a 4-3 penalty shootouts win over Ghana. Cameroon made it the fourth win in 2002 with a 3-2 penalty win over Senegal.
Tunisia intervened to win the 2004 cup beating Morocco 2-1 to take the first title. Egypt came back to make their tally to 5, 6 and 7 in 2006, 2008 and 2010 taking titles three times in a row.
In 2012 Zambia exceeded expectations to emerge victorious over the Ivory Coast side in the final. Zambia won their first title in the penalty shootout.
Change of calendar to odd numbers
In 2013 Nigeria was the champion at the expense of Burkina Faso in the 2013 African Cup of Nations held in South Africa.
In2015 Ivory coast and Ghana faced off in the final for the second time in the history of the championship, after playing for the first time in 1992. The final match against Ghana remained goalless after extra time and Ivory Coast won on penalties to win the second title.
In 2017 Cameroon won the title beating Egypt 2-1 in the final. Who will be the winners of the 32nd African nations Cup?
The Ethiopian Herald July 2/2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
