The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2017 or CAN 2017), known as the Total 2017 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 The tournament was scheduled to be hosted by Libya, until CAF rescinded its hosting rights in August 2014 due to the Second Libyan civil war. The tournament was instead hosted by Gabon. 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. 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.
Host selection First bidding Bids : Nation Last hostedBotswana —Cameroon 1972DR Congo —Guinea —Morocco 1988 South Africa 2013At the time of bidding, 1996 was South Africa's previous time hosting. They would later step in to host the 2013 AFCON in place of war-torn Libya.Zambia —Zimbabwe —
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. 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. 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. Morocco was the next country to be inspected, with CAF visiting the country in early November 2010. South Africa was inspected in December 2010.
Nation Last hostedMorocco1988South Africa2013
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.
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After Libya was withdrawn as the venue on 22 August 2014, the CAF announced that they would be receiving applications for the new hosts until 30 September 2014.
Algeria, Egypt, Gabon, and Ghana, were determined by the CAF to be compliant with the host criteria. Later, Egypt withdrew.
Other countries which expressed an interest but did not bid included Ethiopia, Mali, and Tanzania. Kenya discussed a joint bid with neighbors Rwanda and Uganda, but eventually bid alone.
On 8 April 2015, CAF President Issa Hayatou announced Gabon as the replacement hosts following votes by the CAF Executive Committee.
ResultsNationVotes Gabon9 Algeria4 Ghana0 EgyptWithdrewTotal votes 13
Qualification
The draw for the qualification stage took place on 8 April 2015, immediately after the announcement of the host nation. 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. However, the ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowing Morocco to enter the tournament.
Three-time champions Nigeria did not qualify.
Qualified teams The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. Team Method ofqualification Date ofqualification Finalsappearance Lastappearance Previous bestperformance FIFA rankingat start of event 2015 (1996, 2012) 108 2013 (1976) 57 2015 (1990) 39 2015 (1984, 1988, 2000, 2002) 62 2015 (2002) 33 2010 (1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008, 2010) 35 2015 (1963, 1965, 1978, 1982) 54 none 68 2006 (2004, 2006) 103 2015 (1972) 64 2015 (1992, 2015) 34 1978 (1978) 73 2015 (2013) 53 2015 (2004) 36 2015 (1968, 1974) 49 2013 (2013) 90
Venues The four venues were confirmed in October 2016. CityStadiumCapacityLibrevilleStade de l'Amitié40,000FrancevilleStade de Franceville25,000OyemStade d'Oyem20,500Port-GentilStade de Port-Gentil20,000
Squads
Each team could register a squad of 23 players.
Match officials The following referees were chosen for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
Referees
Mehdi Abid Charef Joshua Bondo Sidi Alioum Denis Dembélé Gehad Grisha Bamlak Tessema Weyesa Eric Otogo-Castane Bakary Gassama Hamada Nampiandraza Redouane Jiyed Mahamadou Keita Ali Lemghaifry Daniel Bennett Malang Diedhiou Bernard Camille Youssef Essrayri Janny Sikazwe
Assistant referees
Albdelhak Etchiali Jerson Emiliano Dos Santos Jean-Claude Birumushahu Evarist Menkouande Elvis Guy Noupue Nguegoue Marius Donatien Tan Tahssen Abo El Sadat Bedyer Théophile Vinga Aboubacar Doumbouya Marwa Range Redouane Achik Arsénio Chadreque Marengula Yahaya Mahamadou Abel Baba Olivier Safari Kabene Djibril Camara El Hadji Malick Samba Zakhele Siwela Ali Waleed Ahmed Mohammed Abdallah Ibrahim Anouar Hmila
Format 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.
Draw The draw took place on 19 October 2016, 18:30 UTC+1, in Libreville, Gabon.
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: Africa Cup of Nations final tournaments (2012, 2013, 2015) Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers (2013, 2015, 2017) FIFA World Cup (2014) FIFA World Cup qualifiers (2014)
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4 (22 pts; hosts, assigned to A1) (63.5 pts; title holders, assigned to C1) (56.5 pts) (43.5 pts) (34.5 pts) (33.5 pts) (33.5 pts) (29.5 pts) (29 pts) (24 pts) (18.5 pts) (15.5 pts) (15.5 pts) (12 pts) (10 pts) (8.5 pts)
Group stage Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.
All times are local, WAT (UTC+1).
Tiebreakers 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): Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned; Goal difference 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; Goal difference in all games; Goals scored in all games; Drawing of lots.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage
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).
Bracket
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third place play-off
Final
Statistics
Goalscorers
3 goals
Junior Kabananga
2 goals
Riyad Mahrez Islam Slimani Aristide Bancé Préjuce Nakoulma Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui Paul-José M'Poku Mohamed Salah Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang André Ayew Sadio Mané Naïm Sliti
1 goal
Sofiane Hanni Issoufou Dayo Alain Traoré Bertrand Traoré Vincent Aboubakar Christian Bassogog Benjamin Moukandjo Nicolas Nkoulou Sébastien Siani Neeskens Kebano Firmin Ndombe Mubele Mohamed Elneny Kahraba Abdallah Said Jordan Ayew Asamoah Gyan Piqueti Juary Soares Wilfried Bony Serey Dié Yves Bissouma Rachid Alioui Aziz Bouhaddouz Youssef En-Nesyri Romain Saïss Papakouli Diop Kara Mbodji Henri Saivet Moussa Sow Mathieu Dossevi Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba Wahbi Khazri Taha Yassine Khenissi Youssef Msakni Farouk Miya Kudakwashe Mahachi Tendai Ndoro Nyasha Mushekwi Knowledge Musona
Own goals
Aïssa Mandi (against Tunisia) Rudinilson Silva (against Burkina Faso)
Discipline A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences: Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences) Receiving two yellow cards in two matches After the end of the group matches, all cautions received were cancelled for the rest of the competition. Nevertheless, a player having collected two yellow cards sustained the one match suspension.
The following suspensions occurred during the tournament:
Player(s)/Official(s) Offence(s) Suspension(s)Group stage suspensions Joyce Lomalisa in Group C vs Morocco (matchday 1; 16 January 2017) Group C vs Ivory Coast (matchday 2; 20 January 2017) Georges Mandjeck in Group A vs Burkina Faso (matchday 1; 14 January 2017) in Group A vs Guinea-Bissau (matchday 2; 18 January 2017) Group A vs Gabon (matchday 3; 22 January 2017)Knockout stage suspensions Kahraba in Quarter-finals vs Morocco (29 January 2017) in Semi-finals vs Burkina Faso (1 February 2017) Final vs Cameroon (5 February 2017)
Awards The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
Total Man of the Competition Christian Bassogog
Top Scorer Junior Kabananga (3 goals)
Fair Play prize
CAF Team of the tournament Goalkeeper Defenders Midfielders Forwards Substitutes Fabrice Ondoa Kara Mbodji Ahmed Hegazi Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui Charles Kaboré Mubarak Wakaso Bertrand Traoré Christian Atsu Mohamed Salah Christian Bassogog Junior Kabananga Essam El-Hadary Cheikhou Kouyaté Préjuce Nakoulma Aristide Bancé Benjamin Moukandjo Zezinho Mbark Boussoufa
Tournament rankings
Ranking criteriaFor teams eliminated in the same knockout round, the following criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the final rankings: 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: Position in group; Points; Goal difference; Goals scored; Disciplinary points.
| colspan="11"| Eliminated in the quarter-finals
| colspan="11"| Eliminated in the group stage
Sponsorship 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)."TOTAL, TITLE SPONSOR OF THE AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS AND PARTNER OF AFRICAN FOOTBALL", CAF, 21 July 2016 Title sponsor Official sponsorsTotalOrange"ORANGE SIGNS NEW EIGHT-YEAR PARTNERSHIP WITH CAF", CAF, 16 December 2016 beIN Sports
Match ball