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The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations will be the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). It will be co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The two countries won the right to host the tournament after defeating a Nigerian bid along with two other bid winning nations, Angola and Libya. Bids from Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Senegal were rejected. For the first time in CAF history, the hosts of three successive tournaments were chosen at the same time; Angola was chosen to host in 2010, Gabon/Equatorial Guinea were chosen as hosts for the 2012 cup and Libya for the 2013 edition. Nigeria was chosen as a stand-by host in the event that one of the chosen nations were to become unsuitable.
Bids shortlist
Five countries were put on the shortlist to host the tournament including one joint bid.
The qualification process involves ten groups of four, one of which was reduced to a group of three after the withdrawal of Mauritania, and one group of five. The top team from each group goes through, as well as the second placed team from the group of five. The two best second place teams also qualify. At the end of the qualification process, fourteen teams will have qualified, as well as the two host nations. The first qualifiers were held on 1 July 2010.
Togo were initially banned from the 2012 and 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournaments by CAF after they withdrew from the 2010 tournament following a deadly attack on their team bus. Togo appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with FIFA president Sepp Blatter stepping in to mediate. The ban was subsequently lifted with immediate effect on 14 May 2010, after a meeting of the CAF Executive Committee. Togo are therefore free to play in the 2012 and 2013 tournaments.
Nigeria
On June 30th, after Nigeria's exit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan punished the team for a poor campaign by imposing a 2-year ban from international competition. This would have resulted in the Nigerians missing out on both the 2012 qualifying phase and the 2012 African Cup of Nations. However, on July 5th, the Nigerian government dropped the ban after FIFA threatened to impose harsher international sanctions as a result of the government interference. Nigeria will now compete in qualifying for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations as scheduled.
Venues
The opening match, one semi-final and the third place match will be held in Equatorial Guinea while the other semi-final and the final will be held in Gabon.
The draw for the finals will take place on 29 October 2011 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The draw will see the 16 qualified teams being pitted into four groups of four teams each. The two top teams from each group will qualify for the quarter finals with the winners progressing to the semi finals and final eventually.
Group stage
NB: Information based on the previouses CAF Africa Cup of Nations, to be confirmed by official regulations when available.