Established in 1937, AFCON gives African football teams the chance to compete in a well-recognized tournament that is broadcast across the continent and globally, providing an opportunity for those nations who do not regularly qualify for the World Cup to show their skills. While Africa has a strong history and interest in football, only the top African national teams

usually qualify for the World Cup as the Confederation of African Football is allocated 5 slots:

In 2018, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia played in the World Cup and no African teams have ever made it to the finals of the World Cup, despite the fact that South Africa hosted the World Cup in 2010.

AFCON, which since 2013 has been played in odd years in order to avoid conflict with the World Cup, gives African national teams and their respective fan-bases a chance to come together every other year for the 4-week duration of the tournament.

The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations will be hosted by Egypt, which will be the fifth AFCON to take place in the country. Egypt has also won the most AFCON tournaments of any nation, with seven wins under their belt, and in 2017, Egypt lost in the final match to Cameroon.

2019 represents the first year that 24 teams will compete, instead of 16, giving more teams the chance to qualify. Matches will take place in six stadia across Egypt, including Cairo International Stadium, Port Said Stadium, Air Force Stadium, and the Suez Sport Stadium.

The final will be played at the Cairo International Stadium, which can host an audience of up to 75,000. The Group Stage of the tournament, which is a

knockout round, kicks off on Friday, the 21st of June, with a match between Egypt and Zimbabwe, and concludes on Tuesday, the 2nd of July with a match between Mauritania and Tunisia. The matches will continue on through July with the Final being played on the 19th of July.

The AFCON time-table is as follows:

Group Stage:  June 21 – July 2

Round of 16:   July 5 -  July 8

Quarter Final:  July 10 – July 11

Semi Final:      July 14

3^rd Place:         July 17

Final:               July 19

The 24 participating countries are as follows:

Algeria                                                 Guinea                                         Namibia

Angola                                                 Guinea-Bissau                               Nigeria

Burundi                                                            Ivory Coast                             Senegal

Benin                                                               Kenya                                      South Africa

Cameroon                                                       Madagascar                            Tanzania

Democratic Republic of Congo                      Mali                                         Tunisia

Egypt                                                               Mauritania                               Uganda

Ghana                                                 Morocco                                            Zimbabwe