Africa will as soon as once more present the world its greatest expertise, tradition and keenness for soccer because the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) takes middle stage in Ivory Coast this weekend.
As the highest 24 African groups converge on Ivory Coast for the 2023 AFCON, Guardian Nigeria appears at attention-grabbing information forward of the month-long soccer celebration.
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, to be held in Ivory Coast, would be the thirty fourth version because the inaugural event in 1957.
This 12 months the event runs from January 13 to February 11, 2024 in 5 host cities and 6 stadiums.
READ ALSO: Ahmed Musa is assured Nigeria can win AFCON 2023
The 5 host cities are Abidjan, Bouake, Korhogo, San-Pedro and Yamoussoukro.
There are two stadiums in Abidjan: Alassane Ouattara (capability 60,000) and Felix Houphouet Boigny (capability 33,000).
Bouake has the Stade de la Paix with a capability of 40,000, in Korhogo the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium (capability of 20,000), the Laurent Pokou Stadium (capability of 20,000) in San-Pedro and the Charles Konan Banny Stadium (capability of 20,000) in Yamoussoukro.
The Alassane Ouattara Stadium will host each the opening match and the ultimate.
That is the second time that Ivory Coast has hosted the Africa Cup of Nations, after the primary time in 1984, which was received by Cameroon.
For the 2023 version, 24 groups certified for the primary time because the 2015 version in Equatorial Guinea with no debuting nation.
Senegal's Teranga Lions are the reigning champions after clinching their first title following a penalty shootout win in opposition to Egypt on the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon.
The 2023 competitors can have six teams with 4 groups in every of the teams and two groups from every group mechanically qualify for the spherical of 16.
The 4 greatest third-placed groups from one of many teams even have the prospect to qualify for the knockout spherical.
The opening match will happen between hosts Ivory Coast and Group A Guinea-Bissau on Saturday, January 13 on the 60,000-capacity Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan.
The Nigerian Tremendous Eagles will kick off their marketing campaign in opposition to Equatorial Guinea on Sunday, January 14 on the Alassane Ouattara Stadium.
The Eagles will face Ivory Coast on the Alassane Ouattara Stadium on Thursday, January 18.
On Monday, January 22, the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium will host the Eagles' closing group match in opposition to Guinea-Bissau.
5 groups have been tipped because the favorites for this 12 months's event: hosts Ivory Coast, champions Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt.
In the meantime, the Confederation of African Soccer (CAF) on Thursday, January 4, introduced a 40% enhance in prize cash for the winner of AFCON 2023.
The winner of this 12 months's event will now obtain $7 million of the preliminary $5 million and the runner-up will obtain $4 million as a substitute of $2.7 million.
Every of the 2 semifinalists will obtain $2.5 million and for the quarterfinalists, every of the 4 groups will obtain $1.3 million.
