2023 Africa Cup of Nations

2023 Africa Cup of Nations
Coupe d'Afrique des Nations 2023
Official logo[1]
Tournament details
Host countryIvory Coast
Dates13 January – 11 February 2024
Teams24
Venue(s)6 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Ivory Coast (3rd title)
Runners-up Nigeria
Third place South Africa
Fourth place DR Congo
Tournament statistics
Matches played52
Goals scored119 (2.29 per match)
Attendance1,109,593 (21,338 per match)
Top scorer(s)Equatorial Guinea Emilio Nsue
(5 goals)
Best player(s)Nigeria William Troost-Ekong
Best young playerIvory Coast Simon Adingra
Best goalkeeperSouth Africa Ronwen Williams
Fair play award South Africa
2021
2025

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, known in short as the 2023 AFCON or CAN 2023 and for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, was the 34th edition of the biennial Africa Cup of Nations tournament organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). It was hosted by Ivory Coast, taking place in the country for the second time following the 1984 edition.

This edition of the tournament was initially planned to take place during the Northern Hemisphere's summer like the 2019 Cup, in order to reduce scheduling conflicts with European club teams and competitions.[2][3][4][5] However, it was postponed by CAF to 13 January – 11 February 2024 on 3 July 2022 due to the summer weather concerns in Ivory Coast, although the competition retained the original name for sponsorship purposes.[6][7] This followed the previous edition in 2021 in Cameroon also being moved to the Northern Hemisphere's winter season for similar reasons, albeit coupled with postponement due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the CAF calendar.[8]

Host nation Ivory Coast won the tournament for their third title. They beat Nigeria 2–1 in the final, having also beaten defending champions Senegal in the round of 16 in a penalty shootout after a 1–1 draw.

  1. ^ "New identity for TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Côte d'Ivoire 2023 revealed". CAFOnline.com. 10 June 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  2. ^ "Africa Cup of Nations to switch from January staging to June in 2019". The Guardian. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  3. ^ "Africa Cup of Nations: Date switch makes African players more attractive, say agents". BBC Sport. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  4. ^ Imary, Gerald (21 July 2017). "African Cup of Nations finally moved away from mid-season and expanded from 16 to 24 teams". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 July 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  5. ^ "FIFA Council makes key decisions for the future of football development". FIFA. 26 October 2018. Archived from the original on 26 October 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  6. ^ "CAF President Dr Motsepe announces African Super League launch details, AFCON 2023 and Champions League key decisions" (Press release). CAFOnline.com. 3 July 2022. Archived from the original on 3 July 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2023. ...the Executive Committee has decided that this edition of the tournament will be postponed to the months of January and February 2024. The postponement is as a direct and sole result of the adverse weather conditions in the country and after also having received further technical opinion from experts on adverse effects of staging the matches in that period, as June and July are rainy seasons in Ivory Coast.
  7. ^ Southby, Ben (3 July 2022). "Africa Cup of Nations 2023 finals have been postponed and moved to January 2024 due to weather concerns in Ivory Coast". Eurosport. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  8. ^ "CAF Executive Committee put infrastructures as one of the main priorities". CAFOnline.com. 31 March 2021. Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2021.

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