AFRICA CUP 2019 QUALIFIERS
22 March 2017 - 13 November 2018
2017 Champions: Cameroon
2015 Champions: Ivory Coast
History
Founded: 1957
Region: Africa (CAF)
Current Champion 2017: Cameroon
Most successful team: Egypt (7x titles)
Next African Cup of Nations 2019: Cameroon
The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations is the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa (CAF).
The tournament will be hosted by Gabon.
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.