Stadium news #49
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations is scheduled to take place in the Côte d’Ivoire. The tournament will be the 34th edition of the African championship for national football teams. The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations is scheduled to take place between 13 January 2024 and 11 February 2024. On 3 July 2022, the African football confederation postponed the tournament due to the adverse summer weather concerns in the Côte d’Ivoire.
The 24 teams
24 teams have qualified for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. The national football teams of Algeria, Cameroon, the Côte d’Ivoire, the DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia are among those 24 teams. All of these 12 teams won at least one African championship title. Angola, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania are the 12 teams without an African championship title. Egypt became the most successful team of the African championship for national football teams. They were crowned African football champions seven times.
The previous edition of the African championship
The previous edition of the Africa Cup of Nations was won by the national football team of Senegal. They won the tournament after beating Egypt after a penalty shoot-out. The final took place on 6 January 2022. Tens of thousands of spectators attended the match, which took place in Cameroon. Senegal won the penalty shoot-out after Sadio Mané scored the final penalty of the match. The Senegalese football star played professional football for the European clubs FC Metz, Red Bull Salzburg, Southampton FC, Liverpool FC and Bayern München before he signed with the Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr in 2023.
Hosting the Africa Cup of Nations
Several countries submitted a bid to host the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. The Côte d’Ivoire won the bidding process after the bids of Algeria, Cameroon, Guinea, Senegal, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia were rejected. The Côte d’Ivoire hosted the African championship for national football teams in 1984. Cameroon won the tournament after defeating Nigeria 3-1. The final took place in the city of Abidjan in front of 27,000 spectators.
The stadiums for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations
Six venues are scheduled to host matches for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. The final of the tournament is scheduled to take place at a 60,000-capacity stadium in the city of Abidjan. The other five stadiums are located in Abidjan, Bouaké, Korhogo, San Pédro and Yamoussoukro. All those 2023 Africa Cup of Nations venues will have a capacity of at least 20,000.
