AFRICA CUP 2015
17. January - 08. February 2015
2015 Champions: Ivory Coast
History
Founded: 1957
Region: Africa (CAF)
Number of teams: 16
Current Champion 2015: Ivory Coast
Most successful team: Egypt (7x titles)
Next African Cup of Nations 2017: Gabon
The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations was the 30th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa (CAF).
The tournament was hosted by Equatorial Guinea.
CAF selected a replacement for Morocco after rejecting their request to delay the finals.
Morocco previously hosted the tournament in 1988.
The Africa Cup of Nations, is also referred to as the African Nations Cup (ANC) is the main international association football competition in Africa.
It is sanctioned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and was first held in 1957.
Since 1968, it has been held every two years.
The title holders at the time of a FIFA Confederations Cup qualify for that competition.
In 1957 there were only three participating nations: Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. South Africa were to compete, but were disqualified due to the apartheid policies of the goverment then in power.
Since then, the tournament has grown, making it necessary to hold a qualifying tournament.
The number of particpants in the final tournament reached 16 in 1998 (16 teams were to compete in 1996 but Nigeria withdrew, reducing the field to 15).
Since then the format has been unchanged, with the sixteen teams being drawn into four groups of four teams each, with the top two teams of each group advancing to a "knock out" stage.
Egypt is the most successful nation in the cup's history, winning the tournament with a record of seven times. Ghana and Cameroon have won four titles each.
Three different trophies have been awarded during the tournament's history, with Ghana and Cameroon winning the first two versions to keep after each of them won a tournament three times. The current trophy was first awarded in 2002.