2010 African Cup of Nations

2010 Africa Cup of Nations
Campeonato Africano das Nações de 2010 (Angolan Portuguese)
	Official logo
Tournament details
Host country	Angola
Dates	10–31 January
Teams	15
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Egypt (7th title)
Runners-up	Ghana
Third place	Nigeria
Fourth place	Algeria
Tournament statistics
Matches played	29
Goals scored	71 (2.45 per match)
Attendance	543,500 (18,741 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Gedo (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Ahmed Hassan
Best goalkeeper	Essam El Hadary
	← 2008 2012 →

The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 27th Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football championship of Africa (CAF). It was held in Angola, where it began on 10 January 2010 and concluded on 31 January.^[1]^[2]

In the tournament, the hosts Angola were to be joined by 15 nations who advanced from the qualification process that began in October 2007 and involved 53 African national teams. The withdrawal of Togo after a terrorist attack on their bus upon arriving for the tournament reduced the number of participating nations to 15. A total of 29 games were played, instead of the scheduled 32 games. Egypt won the tournament, their seventh ACN title and an unprecedented third in a row, beating Ghana 1–0 in the final.^[3]

Host selection

Bids :

Angola (selected as hosts for 2010)
Gabon / Equatorial Guinea (selected as hosts for 2012)
Libya (selected as hosts for 2013)
Nigeria (selected as reserve hosts for 2010, 2012 & 2013 tournaments)

Rejected Bids :

Benin / Central African Republic
Botswana
Mozambique
Namibia
Senegal
Zimbabwe

On 4 September 2006, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) approved a compromise between rival countries to host the Africa Cup of Nations after it ruled out Nigeria. CAF agreed to award the next three editions from 2010 to Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Libya respectively. They assigned Angola in 2010, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, which submitted a joint bid in 2012, and Libya for 2014.

This edition was awarded to Angola to encourage the country to move towards peace after the Angolan Civil War.

Two-time former host Nigeria was the reserve host for the 2010, 2012 and 2014 tournaments, in the event that any of the host countries failed to meet the requirements established by CAF, although this ended up being unnecessary.

The 2014 tournament was pushed forward to 2013 and subsequently held in odd-numbered years to avoid year-clash with the FIFA World Cup.^[4]

Qualification

The Confederation of African Football announced that the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification would also be the qualification for this tournament. Despite the fact Angola were the host of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, they also needed to participate in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification. South Africa suffered the same situation, being the hosts for the World Cup but still needing to compete in qualification in order to qualify for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.^[5]

Qualified teams

Venues

Luanda	Luanda Cabinda Benguela Lubango	Cabinda
Estádio 11 de Novembro		Estádio Nacional do Chiazi

Capacity: 50,000		Capacity: 20,000
Benguela		Lubango
Estádio Nacional de Ombaka		Estádio Nacional da Tundavala

Capacity: 35,000		Capacity: 20,000

Draw

The draw for the final tournament took place on 20 November 2009 at the Talatona Convention Centre in Luanda, Angola. The 16 teams were split into four pots, with Pot 1 containing the top four seeded nations. Angola were seeded as hosts and Egypt as reigning holders. The remaining 14 teams were ranked based on their records in the three last editions of the competition. Cameroon and Ivory Coast had the two strongest records and so completed the top seeded Pot 1. The four seeded teams were placed into their groups in advance of the final draw.^{[citation needed]}

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Angola (hosts) Egypt (title holders) Cameroon Ivory Coast	Ghana Nigeria Tunisia Mali	Zambia Benin Algeria Togo (withdrew)	Burkina Faso Mozambique Gabon Malawi

Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.

Referees	Assistant Referees
Mohamed Benouza Hélder Martins de Carvalho Coffi Codjia Noumandiez Doué Essam Abdel-Fatah Koman Coulibaly Rajindraparsad Seechurn Khalil Al Ghamdi Badara Diatta Eddy Maillet Daniel Bennett Jerome Damon Khalid Abdel Rahman Kokou Djaoupe Kacem Bennaceur Muhmed Ssegonga	Inácio Manuel Candido Desire Gahungu Evarist Menkouande Nasser Sadek Abdel Nabi Angesom Ogbamariam Ayuba Haruna Hassan Kamranifar Fooad El Maghrabi Moffat Champiti Redouane Achik Peter Edibe Mohammed Al Ghamdi Enock Molefe Celestin Ntagungira Bechir Hassani Kenneth Chichenga

Squads

Group stage

Tie-breaking criteria

If two or more teams end the group stage with the same number of points, their ranking is determined by the following criteria:^[6]

points earned in the matches between the teams concerned;
goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned;
number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned;
goal difference in all group matches;
number of goals scored in all group matches;
fair play points system taking into account the number of yellow and red cards;
drawing of lots by the organising committee.

All times given as local time (UTC+1)

Group A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Angola (H)	3	1	2	0	6	4	+2	5	Advance to knockout stage
2	Algeria	3	1	1	1	1	3	−2	4^[a]	Advance to knockout stage
3	Mali	3	1	1	1	7	6	+1	4^[a]
4	Malawi	3	1	0	2	4	5	−1	3

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: ^{[citation needed]}
(H) Hosts
Notes:

^ ^a ^b Algeria finished ahead of Mali due to winning the match between the teams (see tie-breaking criteria).

10 January 2010

20:00

Angola	4–4	Mali
Flávio 36', 42' Gilberto 67' (pen.) Manucho 74' (pen.)	Report	Keita 79', 90+3' Kanouté 88' Yatabaré 90+4'

Estádio 11 de Novembro, Luanda

Attendance: 45,000

Referee: Essam Abdel-Fatah (Egypt)

11 January 2010