2012 Africa Cup of Nations

2012 Africa Cup of Nations

Copa Africana de Naciones 2012 Campeonato Africano das Nações de 2012 Coupe d'Afrique des Nations 2012 AFCON 2012 CAN 2012
Tournament details
Host countries	Equatorial Guinea Gabon
Dates	21 January – 12 February
Teams	16
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Zambia (1st title)
Runners-up	Ivory Coast
Third place	Mali
Fourth place	Ghana
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	76 (2.38 per match)
Attendance	456,332 (14,260 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Manucho Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Didier Drogba Cheick Diabaté Houssine Kharja Christopher Katongo Emmanuel Mayuka (3 goals each)
Best player(s)	Christopher Katongo
Fair play award	Ivory Coast

The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The competition took place between 21 January and 12 February 2012 and was co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The bidding process for hosting the tournament ended in September 2006.

The matches were played in four stadiums in four host cities, with the final played at the newly built Stade d'Angondjé in Gabon's largest city, Libreville. Fourteen teams were selected for participation via a continental qualification tournament that began in July 2010.

The 2012 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations took place against the backdrop of political turmoil. Libya and Tunisia qualified for the tournament, even as the Arab Spring brought upheaval and regime change to both nations. Traditional African footballing nations such as reigning champions Egypt (also affected by political events), as well as Cameroon, Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa had failed to qualify. Players from third-placed Mali had pleaded for the insurgency in the north of their country to end.

In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These eight teams advanced to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final. Both host nations, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, were eliminated from the competition at the quarter-final stage.

In the final, unfancied Zambia defeated third-time finalists Ivory Coast after a dramatic penalty shootout, despite the fact that Ivory Coast did not concede a single goal during the entire tournament, giving Zambia their first continental title. Manager Hervé Renard dedicated their win to the members of the national team who died in a plane crash near the final's venue in Libreville in 1993.

Host selection

Bids :

• Angola (selected as hosts for 2010)
• Gabon / Equatorial Guinea (selected as hosts for 2012)
• Libya (selected as hosts for 2013)
• Nigeria (selected as reserve hosts for 2010, 2012 & 2013 tournaments)

Rejected Bids :

• Benin / Central African Republic
• Botswana
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Senegal
• Zimbabwe

On 4 September 2006, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) approved a compromise between rival countries to host the Africa Cup of Nations after it ruled out Nigeria. CAF agreed to award the next three editions from 2010 to Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Libya respectively. They assigned Angola in 2010, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, which submitted a joint bid in 2012, and Libya for 2014.

This edition was awarded to Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to rotate the hosting of the cup and give hosting chance for first-timer nations.

Two-time former host Nigeria was the reserve host for the 2010, 2012 and 2014 tournaments, in the event that any of the host countries failed to meet the requirements established by CAF, although this ended up being unnecessary

The 2014 tournament was pushed forward to 2013 and subsequently held in odd-numbered years to avoid clashing with the FIFA World Cup.

Qualification

The qualification process involved ten groups of four, one of which was reduced to a group of three after the withdrawal of Mauritania, and one group of five. The top team from each group goes through, as well as the second placed team from the group of five. The two best second place teams also qualify. At the end of the qualification process, fourteen teams would have qualified, as well as the two host nations. The first qualifiers were held on 1 July 2010.

Qualified teams

Country	Qualified as	Qualification date	Appearance in finals	Previous best performance	Regional body	FIFA ranking1	Continental ranking1
Angola	Group J Winner	8 October 2011	6th	Quarterfinals (2008, 2010)	COSAFA	85	19
Botswana	Group K Winner	26 March 2011	1st	none	COSAFA	94	21
Burkina Faso	Group F Winner	3 September 2011	8th	Fourth place (1998)	WAFU	66	14
Ivory Coast	Group H Winner	5 June 2011	19th	Winner (1992)	WAFU	18	1
Equatorial Guinea	Co-host	29 July 2007	1st	none	UNIFFAC	151	41
Gabon	Co-host	29 July 2007	5th	Quarterfinals (1996)	UNIFFAC	91	20
Ghana	Group I Winner	8 October 2011	18th	Winner (1963, 1965, 1978, 1982)	WAFU	26	2
Guinea	Group B Winner	8 October 2011	10th	Second place (1976)	WAFU	79	17
Libya	Top Two Runner-Up	8 October 2011	3rd	Second place (1982)	UNAF	63	13
Mali	Group A Winner	8 October 2011	7th	Second place (1972)	WAFU	69	15
Morocco	Group D Winner	9 October 2011	14th	Winner (1976)	UNAF	61	12
Niger	Group G Winner	8 October 2011	1st	none	WAFU	98	22
Senegal	Group E Winner	3 September 2011	12th	Second place (2002)	WAFU	43	5
Sudan	Top Two Runner-Up	9 October 2011	8th	Winner (1970)	CECAFA	120	30
Tunisia	Group K Runner-up	8 October 2011	15th	Winner (2004)	UNAF	59	10
Zambia	Group C Winner	8 October 2011	15th	Second place (1974, 1994)	COSAFA	71	16

¹ FIFA World Rankings, release of 18 January 2012.

Controversies

Togo

Togo were initially banned from the 2012 and 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournaments by CAF after they withdrew from the 2010 tournament following an attack on their team bus. Togo appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with FIFA president Sepp Blatter stepping in to mediate. The ban was subsequently lifted with immediate effect on 14 May 2010, after a meeting of the CAF Executive Committee. Togo were therefore free to play in the 2012 and 2013 qualifiers.

Nigeria

On 30 June 2010, after Nigeria's exit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan punished the team for a poor campaign by imposing a two-year ban from international competition. This would have resulted in the Nigerians missing out on both the 2012 qualifying phase and the 2012 African Cup of Nations. However, on 5 July, the Nigerian government dropped the ban after FIFA threatened to impose harsher international sanctions as a result of the government interference. Nigeria competed in qualifying for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations as scheduled but failed to qualify.

Venues

The opening match, one semi-final and the third place match were held in Equatorial Guinea, while the other semi-final and the final were held in Gabon.

Bata, Equatorial Guinea	Malabo Bata Libreville Franceville	Libreville, Gabon
Estadio de Bata		Stade d'Angondjé
Capacity: 37,500		Capacity: 40,000
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea		Franceville, Gabon
Estadio de Malabo		Stade de Franceville
Capacity: 15,250		Capacity: 22,000

Draw

The draw for the final tournament took place on 29 October 2011 at the Sipopo Conference Palace in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The draw ceremony was attended by the two presidents from the host countries, President Ali Bongo of Gabon and President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. The draw saw the 16 qualified teams being pitted into four groups of four teams each. The two top teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals with the winners progressing to the semi-finals and final eventually.

The two hosts were automatically seeded into pot 1. The other 14 qualified teams were ranked based on their performances during the previous three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments. For each of the last three African Cup of Nations final tournaments, the following system of points is adopted for the qualified countries:

Classification	Points awarded
Winner	7
Runner-up	5
Losing semi-finalists	3
Losing quarter-finalists	2
Eliminated in 1st round	1

Moreover, a weighted coefficient on points was given to each of the last three editions of the Africa Cup of Nations as follows:

• 2010 edition: points to be multiplied by 3
• 2008 edition: points to be multiplied by 2
• 2006 edition: points to be multiplied by 1

The teams were then divided into four pots based on the ranking. Each group contained one team from each pot.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Equatorial Guinea (co-hosts; assigned to A1) Gabon (co-hosts; assigned to C1) Ghana (22 pts) Ivory Coast (17 pts)	Angola (11 pts) Tunisia (9 pts) Zambia (9 pts) Guinea (6 pts)	Mali (5 pts) Senegal (5 pts) Morocco (3 pts) Burkina Faso (3 pts)	Sudan (2 pts) Libya (1 pt) Botswana (0 pts) Niger (0 pts)

Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

Referees	Linesmen
Mohamed Benouza Djamel Haimoudi Néant Alioum Noumandiez Doué Gehad Grisha Eric Otogo-Castane Bakary Gassama Hamada Nampiandraza Koman Coulibaly Ali Lemghaifry Rajindraparsad Seechurn Bouchaïb El Ahrach Badara Diatta Eddy Maillet Daniel Bennett Khalid Abdel Rahman Slim Jedidi Janny Sikazwe	Albdelhak Etchiali Jean-Claude Birumushahu Evarist Menkouande Yanoussa Moussa Richard Bouende-Malonga Songuifolo Yeo Angesom Ogbamariam Theophile Vinga Aboubacar Doumbouya Marwa Range Moffat Champiti Balla Diarra Balkrishna Bootun Redouane Achik David Shaanika Peter Edibe Felicien Kabanda Djibril Camara Jason Damoo Zakhele Siwela Bechir Hassani

Squads

Each team's squad for the tournament consisted of 23 players; only players in these squads were eligible to take part in the tournament. Each participating national association had to submit their squad by 11 January 2012 (midnight CET). Replacement of seriously injured players was permitted until 24 hours before the team in question's first match of the tournament.

Group stage

Groups A and B took place in Equatorial Guinea, while Groups C and D were held in Gabon. Notably, there was not a single goalless draw during the group stage.

Tie-breaking criteria

If two or more teams end the group stage with the same number of points, their ranking is determined by the following criteria:

1. points earned in the matches between the teams concerned;
2. goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned;
3. number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned;
4. goal difference in all group matches;
5. number of goals scored in all group matches;
6. fair play points system taking into account the number of yellow and red cards;
7. drawing of lots by the organising committee.

All times are West Africa Time (UTC+1).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Zambia	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Equatorial Guinea (H)	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	6
3	Libya	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
4	Senegal	3	0	0	3	3	6	−3	0

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ivory Coast	3	3	0	0	5	0	+5	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Sudan	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
3	Angola	3	1	1	1	4	5	−1	4
4	Burkina Faso	3	0	0	3	2	6	−4	0

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Gabon (H)	3	3	0	0	6	2	+4	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Tunisia	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6
3	Morocco	3	1	0	2	4	5	−1	3
4	Niger	3	0	0	3	1	5	−4	0

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Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ghana	3	2	1	0	4	1	+3	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Mali	3	2	0	1	3	3	0	6
3	Guinea	3	1	1	1	7	3	+4	4
4	Botswana	3	0	0	3	2	9	−7	0

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winners if necessary.

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	4 February – Bata
	Zambia	3
					8 February – Bata
	Sudan	0
					Zambia	1
	5 February – Franceville
					Ghana	0
	Ghana (a.e.t.)	2
									12 February – Libreville
	Tunisia	1
									Zambia (p)	0 (8)
	5 February – Libreville
									Ivory Coast	0 (7)
	Gabon	1 (4)
					8 February – Libreville
	Mali (p)	1 (5)
					Mali	0
	4 February – Malabo
					Ivory Coast	1			Third place play-off
	Ivory Coast	3
									11 February – Malabo
	Equatorial Guinea	0
									Ghana	0
									Mali	2

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Awards

• Player of the tournament: Christopher Katongo
• Top goalscorer of the competition: Emmanuel Mayuka
• Fair Player of the competition: Jean-Jacques Gosso
• Fair Play award: Ivory Coast

Team of the tournament

Scorers

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Own goal

• Bakary Koné (playing against Ivory Coast)

Team statistics

Pos.	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts	GF	GA	GD
1	Zambia	6	4	2	0	14	9	3	+6
2	Ivory Coast	6	5	1	0	16	9	0	+9
3	Mali	6	3	1	2	10	6	5	+1
4	Ghana	6	3	1	2	10	6	5	+1
Eliminated in the quarterfinals
5	Gabon	4	3	1	0	10	7	3	+4
6	Tunisia	4	2	0	2	6	5	5	0
7	Equatorial Guinea	4	2	0	2	6	3	5	−2
8	Sudan	4	1	1	2	4	4	7	−3
Eliminated in the group stage
9	Guinea	3	1	1	1	4	7	3	+4
10	Libya	3	1	1	1	4	4	4	0
11	Angola	3	1	1	1	4	4	5	−1
12	Morocco	3	1	0	2	3	4	5	−1
13	Senegal	3	0	0	3	0	3	6	−3
14	Burkina Faso	3	0	0	3	0	2	6	−4
15	Niger	3	0	0	3	0	1	5	−4
16	Botswana	3	0	0	3	0	2	9	−7
Total		32(1)	27	5(2)	27	91	76	76	0

Updated to games played on 12 February 2012. Team(s) rendered in italics represent(s) the host nation(s). The competition's winning team is rendered in bold.
⁽¹⁾ – Total games lost not counted in total games played (total games lost = total games won)
⁽²⁾ – Total number of games drawn (tied) for all teams = Total number of games drawn (tied) ÷ 2 (both teams involved)
⁽³⁾ – As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

By sub-region

Sub-region	T	Pld	W	D	L	Pts	APts	Pts/T
Central Africa	2	8	5	1	2	16	2.00	8.00
East Africa	1	4	1	1	2	4	1.00	4.00
North Africa	3	10	4	1	5	13	1.30	4.33
Southern Africa	3	12	5	3	4	18	1.50	6.00
West Africa	7	30	12	4	14	40	1.33	5.71
Total	16	32(1)	27	5(2)	27	91	1.42	5.69

Updated to games played on 12 February 2012. Host nation(s) are situated in the region(s) rendered in italics.
⁽¹⁾ – Total games lost not counted in total games played (total games lost = total games won)
⁽²⁾ – Total number of games drawn (tied) for all teams = Total number of games drawn (tied) ÷ 2 (both teams involved)
⁽³⁾ – As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Mascot

The mascot for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations was unveiled on 16 September 2011 at a ceremony in Libreville, Gabon. The mascot, named Gaguie, is a gorilla sporting the national team colors of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Match ball

The official match ball for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, manufactured by Adidas, was the Comoequa. The name was inspired by the Komo River, which runs through the host nations, and the Equator, which runs throughout Africa and unites the host nations.

Marketing

Sponsorship