Even though the Afcon Cup is one of the most popular football tournaments in Africa, there’s a lot about this famous competition that people don’t know. In this article, we list 8 things about the Afcon Cup most people aren’t aware of:
⦁ The first-ever winner’s trophy was called the Abdel Aziz Abdallah Salem Trophy (from 1957 to 1978). It was named after the first president of CAF, who was also an Egyptian.
⦁ The tournament is also known as CAN (Coupe d’Afrique des Nations).
⦁ The first team to win the Afcon Cup three times was Ghana when it won in 1978. The second country to achieve this feat was Cameroon when it won in 2000.
⦁ The current Afcon trophy was introduced in 2002.
⦁ Egypt is not only the most successful country with a record-breaking seven Afcon victories, but they’ve also achieved the unprecedented feat of winning the Afcon Cup 3 times consecutively from 2006 to 2010.
⦁ In 2013, it was decided to move the Afcon Cup to odd-numbered years so as not to clash with the FIFA World Cup.
⦁ In the first edition of the tournament, there were four teams, comprising Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and South Africa. However, the field was reduced to three teams when South Africa was disqualified due to the apartheid practices of its government.
⦁ During the tournament’s history, three versions of the winning trophy have been given to the champions. Each time a country wins the tournament the third time, they’re given the current trophy and it’s then permanently retired from the tournament and a new one is introduced in its stead.
Now that you know more about the Afcon Cup and its history, what better time to create your betting strategy?
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