2015 Africa Cup of Nations

2015 Africa Cup of Nations

كأس الأمم الأفريقية لكرة القدم 2015 Coupe d'Afrique des nations de football 2015 AFCON 2015 CAN 2015
Tournament details
Host country	Morocco
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	6 (in 6 host cities)
← 2013 2017 →

The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations is scheduled to be the 30th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa (CAF). For the second time, the tournament is scheduled to be hosted by Morocco - the last tournament held in Morocco was in 1988.

Bids

The following countries expressed an interest in hosting the tournament:

Nation	Last hosted
Botswana[1]	-
Cameroon[2]	1972
Congo DR[3]	-
Guinea[4]	-
Morocco[5]	1988
South Africa[6]	1996
Zambia[7]	-
Zimbabwe[8]	-

CAF received 3 bids before the 30 September 2010 deadline, to host either the 2015 or 2017 Africa Cup of Nations from DR Congo, Morocco and South Africa. All three bids were originally put on a short list.^[9] However, Morocco was considered to be the most favorite to host the competition because of its highly developed infrastructure and advanced stadiums.^{[citation needed]} CAF then began an inspection procedure, intending to visit each bidding country to view stadiums, infrastructure, and football interest. They inspected the DR Congo first.^[10] The inspection was intended to run from 12 to 15 November, but was cut short. 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.^[11]

Morocco was the next country to be inspected, with CAF visiting the country in early November 2010.^[12] South Africa was inspected in December 2010.

On January 29, during 2011 CAF Super Cup, CAF Board decided that Morocco will host 2015 African Cup of Nations.^{[citation needed]}

Format

16 teams will be drawn in four groups. Only host gets direct qualification spot, rest of 15 teams will qualify through qualification round. After group stage, top two teams from each group will play in quarterfinal, quarterfinal winners will play in semifinal, semifinal losers will play in third place match, while winners will play in final match. Competition will be held in January/February 2015.^{[original research?]}

Qualified teams

Country	Qualified as	Date qualification was secured	Previous appearances in tournament1
Morocco	00Hosts	0329 January 2011	14+ (1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year

Venues

Casablanca	Casablanca Rabat Fes Marrakesh Tangier Agadir	Rabat
Grand Stade de Casablanca		Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium
Capacity: 80,000		Capacity: 52,000
Fes		Marrakesh
Fes Stadium		Marrakesh Stadium
Capacity: 45,000		Capacity: 45,240
Tangier		Agadir
Tangier Stadium		Agadir Stadium
Capacity: 45,000		Capacity: 45,480 (under construction)

References