The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2017 or CAN 2017), known as the Total2017 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, 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 (CAF). The tournament was scheduled to be hosted by Libya,[1] until CAF rescinded its hosting rights in August 2014 due to the Second Libyan civil war.[2] The tournament was instead hosted by Gabon.[3] This event was also part of the Africa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.[4]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.
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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[16] Morocco was the next country to be inspected, with CAF visiting the country in early November 2010.[17] South Africa was inspected in December 2010.
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.[1]
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After Libya was withdrawn as the venue on 22 August 2014, the CAF announced that they would be receiving applications for the new hosts until 30 September 2014.[18]
Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, and Ghana, were determined by the CAF to be compliant with the host criteria.[19][20] Later, Egypt withdrew.[21]
Other countries which expressed an interest but did not bid included Ethiopia,[22] Mali,[23] and Tanzania.[24] Kenya discussed a joint bid with neighbors Rwanda and Uganda,[25] but eventually bid alone.
On 8 April 2015,[26] CAF President Issa Hayatou announced Gabon as the replacement hosts following votes by the CAF Executive Committee.[3]
The draw for the qualification stage took place on 8 April 2015, immediately after the announcement of the host nation.[26] 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.[27] However, the ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowing Morocco to enter the tournament.[28]
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.[32]
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:[35][36][37]
Africa Cup of Nations final tournaments (2012, 2013, 2015)
Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers (2013, 2015, 2017)
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):[32]
Number of points obtained 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;
Cameroon players celebrating their victory in the final
In the knockout stages, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner, except for the play-off for third place, where no extra time was played (Regulations Article 75).[32]
In July 2016, Total secured an eight-year sponsorship package from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to support ten of its principal competitions, including the Africa Cup of Nations (renamed the Total Africa Cup of Nations).[41]
For teams eliminated in the same knockout round, the following criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the final rankings:[43]
Goal difference in round eliminated;
Goals scored in round eliminated;
If teams eliminated in the semi-finals or quarter-finals are tied, the above criteria are reapplied for the previous knockout round, with this process repeated once more should two semi-finalists remain tied;
Points in group stage;
Goal difference in group stage;
Goals scored in group stage;
Disciplinary points.
For teams eliminated in the group stage, the following criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the final rankings:[43]
Mitre 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.[44]
Mascot
The official mascot of the tournament was "Samba", a black panther.[45]
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!"[46]
