2020 African Nations Championship


The 2020 African Nations Championship, known as CHAN 2020 for short and the Total African Nations Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 6th edition of the biennial association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football, featuring national teams consisting of players from their respective national leagues. It was held in Cameroon from 16 January to 7 February 2021.
Originally scheduled from 4 to 25 April 2020, CAF announced its postponement on 17 March 2020 to a later date due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, eventually rescheduling it to January 2021 on 30 June that year.
Morocco defeated Mali in the final to successfully defend their title, thus joining DR Congo as the tournament's most successful nations as well as being the first team to win it back-to-back or twice in a row.

Host selection

were originally officially appointed to host the tournament on 4 February 2018 after the final of the previous edition in Morocco, but the country's football federation admitted it wasn't ready so it was handed over to Cameroon instead. Originally scheduled for January and February 2020, it was postponed to April 2020 and then to January and February 2021.
After inspecting all stadia and infrastructure, CAF 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 were admitted in the different stadia during the group stage of the competition and about 50% spectator increament the knock-out phases.

Qualification

The qualification rounds took place in 2019. Djibouti and Gabon were banned as they withdrew during the qualification for the previous edition. The former, along with original hosts Ethiopia were later reinstated.

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament:
Tunisia withdrew from the tournament despite qualification. CAF invited Libya, whom Tunisia defeated to qualify, and gave them a deadline of 28 January 2020 to decide whether or not to participate in place of Tunisia. Libya accepted the invitation and Tunisia were fined $75,000 and banned from participating in the qualification rounds of the next edition.
TeamZoneAppearancePrevious best performanceFIFA ranking
at start of event
Central Zone4th 50
Central Zone3rd 91
Central Zone5th 60
Central Eastern Zone4th 133
Central Eastern Zone2nd 135
Central Eastern Zone5th 79
Northern Zone4th 111
Northern Zone4th 35
Southern Zone2nd 119
Southern Zone4th 90
Southern Zone5th 108
Western Zone A3rd 73
Western Zone A4th 57
Western Zone B3rd 58
Western Zone B3rd 113
Western Zone B1st128

Venues

Matches were held in 4 venues across 3 cities: Yaoundé, Limbe and Douala. The fixtures were announced on 24 February 2020.

Squads

Each squad can contain a maximum of 23 players.

Match officials

The following 43 match officials officiated during the 2020 African Nations Championship.
;Referees
;Assistant referees
  • Jerson Dos Santos
  • Elvis Noupue
  • Carine Atezambong Fomo
  • Issa Yaya
  • Liban Abdirazack Ahmed
  • Oliver Safari
  • Mahmoud Abouelregal
  • Boris Ditsoga
  • Abdul Aziz Jawo
  • Gilbert Cheruiyot
  • Attia Amsaaed
  • Lionel Andrianantenaina
  • Bernadettar Kwimbira
  • Mostafa Akarkad
  • Zakaria Brinsi
  • Abdoul Aziz Saley
  • Mimisen Iyorhe
  • Samuel Pwadutakam
  • James Emile
  • Mohammed Abdallah Ibrahim
  • Kahalil Hassani
  • Zakhele Siwela
;Video assistant referees
The draw of this edition of the tournament was held at the Polyvalent Sports Center of Yaoundé in Yaoundé on 17 February 2020 at 19:00 WAT. The 16 teams were drawn into 4 groups of 4 and were allocated into 4 pots, with the hosts Cameroon seeded in position A1 of Group A1 and the defending champions Morocco seeded in position C1 of Group C.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4

  • Group stage

    The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals.
    ;Tiebreakers
    Teams are ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
    1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
    2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
    3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
    4. 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;
    5. Goal difference in all group matches;
    6. Goals scored in all group matches;
    7. Drawing of lots.
    All times are local, WAT.

    Group A


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    Group B


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    Group C


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    Group D


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    Knockout stages

    In the knockout stages, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner if necessary.

    Bracket

    Quarter-finals

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    Semi-finals

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    Third place match

    Final

    Goalscorers

    Awards

    The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
    Total Man of the Competition
    Soufiane Rahimi
    Top Scorer
    Soufiane Rahimi
    Best Goalkeeper
    Anas Zniti
    Best Young Player
    Morlaye Sylla
    Best Coach
    fb|MARfb|MLI

    Team of the Tournament

    GoalkeeperDefendersMidfieldersForwards
    Anas Zniti

    Man of the match

    Tournament team rankings