2017 Africa Cup Of Nations

2017 Africa Cup of Nations
Coupe d'Afrique des Nations 2017
Tournament details
Host country	Gabon
Dates	14 January – 5 February
Teams	16
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Cameroon (5th title)
Runners-up	Egypt
Third place	Burkina Faso
Fourth place	Ghana
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	66 (2.06 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Junior Kabananga; (3 goals)
Best player(s)	Christian Bassogog
Fair play award	Egypt
	← 2015 2019 →

The tournament was scheduled to be hosted by Libya, until CAF rescinded its hosting rights in August 2014 due to the Second Libyan civil war. 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.

Host selection

First bidding

Bids :

Nation	Last hosted
Botswana	—
Cameroon	1972
DR Congo	—
Guinea	—
Morocco	1988
South Africa	2013
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.

Nation	Last hosted
Morocco	1988
South Africa	2013

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 :

Algeria
Egypt
Gabon
Ghana

After Libya was withdrawn as the venue on 22 August 2014, the CAF announced that they would be receiving applications for the new hosts until 30 September 2014.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.

Results
Nation	Votes
Gabon	9
Algeria	4
Ghana	0
Egypt	Withdrew
Total votes	13

Qualification

2017 Africa Cup Of Nations — Qualified

  Failed to qualify

  Withdrew or did not enter

  Not part of CAF

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.

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance	FIFA ranking at start of event
Gabon	Hosts	8 April 2015	7th	2015	Quarter-finals (1996, 2012)	108
Morocco	Group F winners	29 March 2016	16th	2013	Winners (1976)	57
Algeria	Group J winners	2 June 2016	17th	2015	Winners (1990)	39
Cameroon	Group M winners	3 June 2016	18th	2015	Winners (1984, 1988, 2000, 2002)	62
Senegal	Group K winners	4 June 2016	14th	2015	Runners-up (2002)	33
Egypt	Group G winners	4 June 2016	23rd	2010	Winners (1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008, 2010)	35
Ghana	Group H winners	5 June 2016	21st	2015	Winners (1963, 1965, 1978, 1982)	54
Guinea-Bissau	Group E winners	5 June 2016	1st	none	Debut	68
Zimbabwe	Group L winners	5 June 2016	3rd	2006	Group stage (2004, 2006)	103
Mali	Group C winners	5 June 2016	10th	2015	Runners-up (1972)	64
Ivory Coast	Group I winners	3 September 2016	22nd	2015	Winners (1992, 2015)	34
Uganda	Group D runners-up	4 September 2016	6th	1978	Runners-up (1978)	73
Burkina Faso	Group D winners	4 September 2016	11th	2015	Runners-up (2013)	53
Tunisia	Group A winners	4 September 2016	18th	2015	Winners (2004)	36
DR Congo	Group B winners	4 September 2016	18th	2015	Winners (1968, 1974)	49
Togo	Group A runners-up	4 September 2016	8th	2013	Quarter-finals (2013)	90

Venues

Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

The four venues were confirmed in October 2016.

Libreville	Franceville	Libreville Franceville Port-Gentil Oyem	Oyem	Port-Gentil
Stade de l'Amitié	Stade de Franceville		Stade d'Oyem	Stade de Port-Gentil
Capacity: 40,000	Capacity: 25,000		Capacity: 20,500	Capacity: 20,000

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

Albdelhak Etchiali
Jerson Emiliano Dos Santos
Jean-Claude Birumushahu
Evarist Menkouande
Elvis Guy Noupue Nguegoue
Marius Donatien Tan
Tahssen Abo El Sadat Bedyer
Théophile Vinga
Aboubacar Doumbouya
Marwa Range
Redouane Achik
Arsénio Chadreque Marengula
Yahaya Mahamadou
Abel Baba
Olivier Safari Kabene
Djibril Camara
El Hadji Malick Samba
Zakhele Siwela
Ali Waleed Ahmed
Mohammed Abdallah Ibrahim
Anouar Hmila

Format

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 played a single round robin. After the group stage, the top two teams from each group advanced to the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners advanced to the semi-finals. The semi-final losers played in a third place match, while the semi-final winners played in the final.

Draw

The draw took place on 19 October 2016, 18:30 UTC+1, 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:

Africa Cup of Nations final tournaments (2012, 2013, 2015)
Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers (2013, 2015, 2017)
FIFA World Cup (2014)
FIFA World Cup qualifiers (2014)

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Gabon (22 pts; hosts, assigned to A1) Ivory Coast (63.5 pts; title holders, assigned to C1) Ghana (56.5 pts) Algeria (43.5 pts)	Tunisia (34.5 pts) Mali (33.5 pts) Burkina Faso (33.5 pts) DR Congo (29.5 pts)	Cameroon (29 pts) Senegal (24 pts) Morocco (18.5 pts) Egypt (15.5 pts)	Togo (15.5 pts) Uganda (12 pts) Zimbabwe (10 pts) Guinea-Bissau (8.5 pts)

Group stage

Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.

All times are local, WAT (UTC+1).

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 74):

Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to teams concerned, two or three teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the matches between these teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 applied;
Goal difference in all games;
Goals scored in all games;
Drawing of lots.

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Burkina Faso	3	1	2	0	4	2	+2	5	Advance to knockout stage
2	Cameroon	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5	Advance to knockout stage
3	Gabon (H)	3	0	3	0	2	2	0	3
4	Guinea-Bissau	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

Source: CAF
(H) Hosts

14 January 2017

17:00

Gabon	1–1	Guinea-Bissau
Aubameyang 52'	Report	Juary 90+1'

Stade de l'Amitié, Libreville

Attendance: 39,230

Referee: Gehad Grisha (Egypt)

14 January 2017