2020 African Nations Championship

2020 African Nations Championship
Championnat d'Afrique des Nations 2020; 2020 CHAN
Tournament details
Host country	Cameroon
Dates	16 January – 7 February 2021
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Morocco (2nd title)
Runners-up	Mali
Third place	Guinea
Fourth place	Cameroon
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	62 (1.94 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Soufiane Rahimi (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Soufiane Rahimi
Best goalkeeper	Anas Zniti
Fair play award	Mali

The 2020 African Nations Championship, known as the Total African Nations Championship (also referred to as CHAN 2020) is the 6th edition of the African Nations Championship, a biennial football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) exclusively featuring players from the respective national championships. The current winners are the Morocco National Team

The tournament is being held in Cameroon from 16 January to 7 February 2021. Originally it was scheduled to be played from 4 to 25 April 2020.[1] However, CAF announced on 17 March 2020 that the tournament had been postponed to a later date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] On 30 June, CAF announced that the tournament would be held in January and February 2021.[3]

Ethiopia were formerly awarded as host of the tournament, but the EFF admitted it was not ready to host this competition,[4] and hosting rights were awarded to Cameroon instead.[5][6] The final tournament was originally to be played during January and February,[7] but it was moved to April,[8] before being postponed again.

Unlike the Africa Cup of Nations, the competing national teams must be composed of players playing in their domestic league. For example, a Cameroonian player is only eligible to play for the Cameroon national team if he is playing for a Cameroonian club.

Morocco are the defending champions.

CAF has delivered a satisfactory certificate to Cameroon in which they indicated the percentage of attendance in line with health exigencies outlined by FIFA. Twenty five percent of spectators will be admitted in the different stadia during the first phase of the competition, that is group matches and It could rise to 50 per cent in the knock-out phases of the competition.[9]

Host selection

Ethiopia were originally officially appointed to host the tournament on 4 February 2018, after the final of the previous tournament in Morocco.[10] Cameroon were appointed to replace Ethiopia to host the tournament on 13 April 2019.[5]

Qualification

The qualifying rounds took place in 2019. Djibouti and Gabon were banned as they withdrew during the 2018 African Nations Championship qualification.[11] Djibouti, along with the original hosts Ethiopia were later reinstated.[12]

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.[13] Tunisia qualified for the tournament but withdrew in January 2020. On 20 January 2020, Libya, which were eliminated by Tunisia in the qualifying round, were invited to take part in place and given a deadline of 28 January 2020 to decide whether to participate.[14] Libya decided to accept the invitation.[15] Tunisia were banned from the next edition of the African Nations Championship.[16]

Team	Zone	Appearance	Previous best performance	FIFA ranking at start of event
Cameroon (hosts)	Central Zone	4th	Quarter-finals (2011, 2016)	50
Congo		3rd	Quarter-finals (2018)	91
DR Congo		5th	Champions (2009, 2016)	60
Rwanda	Central Eastern Zone	4th	Quarter-finals (2016)	133
Tanzania		2nd	Group stage (2009)	135
Uganda		5th	Group stage (2011, 2014, 2016, 2018)	79
Libya	Northern Zone	4th	Champions (2014)	111
Morocco	Northern Zone	4th	Champions (2018 , 2021 )	35
Namibia	Southern Zone	2nd	Quarter-finals (2018)	119
Zambia		4th	Third place (2009)	90
Zimbabwe		5th	Fourth place (2014)	108
Guinea	Western Zone A	3rd	Fourth place (2016)	73
Mali	Western Zone A	4th	Runners-up (2016)	57
Burkina Faso	Western Zone B	3rd	Group stage (2014, 2018)	58
Niger		3rd	Quarter-finals (2011)	113
Togo		1st	Debut	128

Venues

Matches will be held in four venues at three cities: Yaoundé, Limbe and Douala.[6] The fixtures were announced on 24 February 2020.[17]

Yaounde Limbe Douala		Douala
		Japoma Stadium	Stade de la Réunification
		Capacity: 50,000	Capacity: 30,000

		Yaounde	Limbe
		Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo	Limbe Stadium
		Capacity: 42,500	Capacity: 20,000

Squads

Each squad can contain a maximum of 23 players (Regulations Article 72).[18]

Match officials

The following 43 match officials officiated during the 2020 African Nations Championship.[19][20]

Referees

Lahlou Benbraham
George Gatogato
Pacifique Ndabihawenimana
Sidi Alioum
Jean-Jacques Ndala
Mahmoud El Banna (+ VAR)
Mohamed Marouf
(Ms) Lidya Tafesse
Daniel Laryea
Peter Waweru
Andofetra Rakotojaona
Adil Zourak (+ VAR)
Boubou Traoré
Beida Dahane (+ VAR)
Ahmad Imtehaz Heeralall
Samir Guezzaz
Jean Claude Ishimwe
Sadok Selmi

Assistant referees

Jerson Dos Santos (+ AVAR)
Elvis Noupue (+ AVAR)
(Ms) Carine Atezambong Fomo
Issa Yaya
Liban Abdirazack Ahmed
Oliver Safari
Mahmoud Abouelregal (+ AVAR)
Boris Ditsoga
Abdul Aziz Jawo
Gilbert Cheruiyot
Attia Amsaaed
Lionel Andrianantenaina
(Ms) Bernadettar Kwimbira
Mostafa Akarkad
Zakaria Brinsi
Abdoul Aziz Saley
Mimisen Iyorhe
Samuel Pwadutakam
James Emile
Mohammed Abdallah Ibrahim (+ AVAR)
Kahalil Hassani (+ AVAR)
Zakhele Siwela (+ AVAR)

Video assistant referees

Draw

The draw of the final tournament was held on 17 February 2020, 19:00 WAT (UTC+1), at the Palais Polyvalent des Sports de Yaoundé in Yaoundé.[21][22][23] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Teams were allocated into four pots, with the hosts Cameroon seeded in Group A and the defending champions Morocco seeded in Group C.[24]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Cameroon (hosts; position A1) Morocco (holders; position C1) Libya Zambia	DR Congo Guinea Mali Rwanda	Uganda Congo Namibia Burkina Faso	Zimbabwe Niger Togo Tanzania

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 74):[18]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots.

All times are local, WAT (UTC+1).[25]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mali	3	2	1	0	3	1	+2	7	Knockout stage
2	Cameroon (H)	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5	Knockout stage
3	Burkina Faso	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	4
4	Zimbabwe	3	0	0	3	1	5	−4	0

Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Host.

16 January 2021