Africa Cup of Nations 2023: A guide to the action, fixtures and format

• Hosts Ivory Coast host cities confirmed

• Rundown of previous winners

• Africa Cup of Nations latest betting odds

• All matches shown live in the UK on Sky Sports

The African Nations Cup, which kicks-off on January 13, promises to be a fantastic tournament for football fans and bettors alike.

Some of the biggest names in world football will be taking part, from Mohamed Salah (Egypt) and Victor Osimhen (Nigeria), to Sadio Mane (Senegal) and Riyad Mahrez (Algeria).

African Nations Cup format

The 2023 African Nations Cup will have a total of 40 games played across the 30-day period where the tournament is being staged. The start date is January 13 and the tournament finishes with the final on February 11.

The format for the African Nations Cup is a simple and familiar one. There are 24 teams taking part, and the opening round comprises six groups of four. The top two from each group, plus the four best third-placed teams, go through to the next phase.

The group stage runs from January 13 to January 24, and there will be up to four games per day on some of the matchdays. Two days of rest follow before the knockout stage begins.

The Round of 16 takes place from January 27 to January 30, followed by the quarter-finals (Feb 2 and 3), semi-finals (Feb 7), third-placed play-off (Feb 10) and final (Feb 11).

African Nations Cup host and venues

The 2023 African Nations Cup is being staged in Ivory Coast, and the final will be held at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan (60,000 capacity). Abidjan is one of five host cities where games will occur during this running of the African Nations Cup.

The other host cities are Bouake, Korhogo, San Pedro and Yamoussoukro. There are two stadiums being used in the capital city Abidjan, and one stadium in each of the other four host cities.

African Nations Cup history

The African Nations Cup began in 1957, and this will be the 34th running of the tournament. Having started out on a smaller scale, the tournament has grown significantly as the years have gone by.

The 2023 African Nations Cup is set to be the most popular yet in terms of global reach and audience.

Egypt are the continent's most successful nation, having won the African Nations Cup on seven separate occasions. The Pharaohs are followed by Cameroon (five-times winners), Ghana (four) and Nigeria (three).

Last 10 African Nations Cup Winners

2021 SENEGAL 0-0 EGYPT (Senegal win 4-2 on pens)
2019 ALGERIA 1-0 SENEGAL
2017 CAMEROON 2-1 EGYPT
2015 IVORY COAST 0-0 GHANA (Ivory Coast win 9-8 on pens)
2013 NIGERIA 1-0 BURKINA FASO
2012 ZAMBIA 0-0 IVORY COAST (Zambia win 8-7 on pens)
2010 EGYPT 1-0 GHANA
2008 EGYPT 1-0 CAMEROON
2006 EGYPT 0-0 IVORY COAST (Egypt win 4-2 on pens)
2004 TUNISIA 2-1 MOROCCO

Recent finals have been generally low-scoring as you can see - the last 10 African Nations Cup finals have averaged just 1.0 goals per game

AFCON 2023: The Group Stages

Group A: Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau

Group B: Egypt, Ghana, Cape Verde, Mozambique

Group C: Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea, Gambia

Group D: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Angola

Group E: Tunisia, Mali, South Africa, Namibia

Group F: Morocco, DR Congo, Zambia, Tanzania

Do host nations always win?

Being the African Nations Cup host nation doesn't notably increase your chances of winning. Only two of the last 10 hosts have won the tournament, and none of the last eight host nations have managed to lift the trophy. The last hosts to win the African Nations Cup were Egypt in 2006.

Do the favourites win?

They certainly did last time out: Senegal were 5.04/1 favourites before the 2021 tournament in Cameroon and ended up going all the way, beating Egypt in the final on penalties.

It was a different story at the previous tournament, in Egypt in 2019. On that occasion, eventual winners Algeria were sixth favourites before the competition began, at odds of 14.013/1. Algeria's African Nations Cup triumph five years ago shows that a team can emerge from the pack to claim the trophy.

2023 African Nations Cup betting

The African Nations Cup is always one of the most open international tournaments, and this year's competition is no different. No fewer than ten of the 24 teams taking part are available at odds of 20/121.00 or shorter. All 10 teams will garner interest in the outright betting before the tournament begins. You can check out all the latest odds here.

Current prices (as of January 3rd 2024):

Senegal 6/17.00
Algeria 13/27.50
Morocco 7/18.00
Ivory Coast 7/18.00
Cameroon 8/19.00
Egypt 9/110.00
Nigeria 10/111.00
Tunisia 10/111.00
Ghana 14/115.00
Mali 20/121.00]

Where can I watch AFCON 2023?

Sky Sports have once again signed up for coverage of AFCON 2023 in the UK. They will show every single match live, starting with Ivory Coast vs Guinea-Bissau on January 13th (20:00).

You can also watch every game for free on CAF's Youtube channel.