The origins of football's Africa Cup of Nations

The story of the Africa Cup of Nations (or AFCON) is one filled with tragedy and triumph, and is now a tournament that brings together some of the best football players in the world. With AFCON 2023 (delayed to January and February 2024 due to adverse summer weather) currently taking place in Ivory Coast, Egypt's Mohamed Salah, Senegal's Sadio Mane and Algeria's Riyad Mahrez are amongst the world-class players competing for their nations at AFCON.

Ben Jackson’s new book The Africa Cup of Nations: The History of an Underappreciated Tournament looks back at the tournament’s rich history—from the great Ghana team of the 1960s and Zaire team of the 1970s, up to the dominant Egypt side of the 2000s. It also examines how South Africa returned in the 1990s after apartheid and how Zambia triumphed after the tragedy of 1993.

In the following extract, Ben discusses how Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt came together to create the first AFCON tournament.

By the end of the Second World War, only four African states were independent. Of that group, it was South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia who were to begin the process of creating a tournament that would eventually feature, from qualification to the finals, 54 African nations. The end of the war brought questions of the validity of colonialism, resulting in the decolonisation of Africa from the 1950s onwards.

Alongside the independence movements, the footballing landscape in Africa began to rapidly expand. Colonialism had introduced football to the continent, and in 1920 Egypt had competed at the Olympic Games, then the major tournament before FIFA was established and the World Cup superseded it. However, for AFCON, it all began in 1954 in Bern. During the fifth World Cup, FIFA’s congress finally voted to recognise Africa as a confederation.

European and South American domination of FIFA had proved to be a barrier to Africa’s recognition as the continent struggled for representation, alongside Asia, on FIFA’s executive committee. The main crux of their argument against these two regions was that football had not reached a sufficient level to be considered an equal partner. Eventually, representation within FIFA for Africa was won by 24 votes to 16.

It was at the 30th FIFA conference in Portugal that the idea of hosting a continental tournament began to take shape. In 1956, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa were joined by Sudan. Once under the rule of a joint British-Egyptian regime, Sudan had gained independence at the beginning of 1956, with the support of the new government in Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser. In Portugal, the four countries were able to discuss the future of African football, and the desire to create a tournament for themselves. 

In keeping with the speed of political developments throughout the 1950s in Africa, it only took a year for plans to fully materialise. In February 1957, the Grand Hotel in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum played host to four delegations from the founding nations. It was fitting that this legacy of Sudanese colonial history would be the site on which one of the first official organisations of pan-Africanism was established, the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The first AFCON tournament was to start the same month, with the four founding nations vying for the trophy.

Two major international developments almost put an end to the inaugural AFCON before it had even begun. Egypt, being the most prominent footballing nation of the four, were favourites to host. However, when Israeli forces invaded Egypt on October 29, 1956, those prospects looked bleak. Both France and Britain also deployed troops alongside the Israelis, looking to take control of the Suez Canal. The Suez Crisis meant the country was in no fit state to host the tournament.

Sudan came to the rescue, offering Khartoum as a host city for the four-team event. It was agreed by CAF that the inauguration of the country’s new Municipal Stadium would be the perfect way to kick-start a continental tournament. Originally, the draw had pitted hosts Sudan against Egypt and Ethiopia against South Africa.

The South African Football Federation offered that either an all-white or all-black team would compete in Khartoum. Unsurprisingly, this proved unacceptable to the other three founding members. Given that over the past decades, Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia had all been colonised by white Europeans and had only just gained independence, feelings of resistance were high. In response, the three expelled South Africa from the tournament and CAF.

Around 30,000 people packed into the Municipal Stadium for the first-ever AFCON match, with Ethiopian referee Gebeyehu Doube in charge. It only took 20 minutes for the game’s first goal, with Sudan giving away a penalty. Zamalek striker Raafat Attia converted the spot-kick, much to the dismay of the home crowd.

The crowd’s prayers were answered in the 58th minute when Boraî Bashir managed to pull the hosts level and grab Sudan’s first-ever AFCON goal. Unfortunately for Sudan, Egypt had the future player of the tournament in their ranks. Alexandria-born striker Mohamed Diab Al-Attar, known as Ad-Diba, was one of the best strikers Egypt had. He was in the twilight of his career with Alexandria-based club Al Ittihad at the time, where he had won the Egyptian Cup in 1948 and finished top scorer in the first-ever Egyptian Premier League. Fahmy had named Ad-Diba captain for the game, and he repaid this faith by scoring the winning goal in the 72nd minute, setting up a final against Ethiopia.

Barely ten minutes after Sudanese referee Mohammed Youssef had gotten the final under way, Ethiopia were in deep trouble. It was that man again, Ad-Diba, who had decided that he was going to write his name into the AFCON history books. The veteran striker grabbed the first goal, before doubling his tally in the seventh minute. Zewde Moustafa’s men were perhaps rusty having not played a competitive game for a long time. However, they did manage to keep the score to just two by half-time. 

If the spectators were hoping for a closely fought contest, they were to be disappointed. Ad-Diba got his hat-trick in the 68th minute, before grabbing a fourth in the 89th. Remarkably, with only two matches played the man from Alexandria finished the tournament with five goals. He goes down in history as the tournament’s first-ever top scorer, as well as the first player to score a hat-trick in an AFCON match and final. Ad-Diba never played another AFCON tournament, retiring in 1958.

At the end of the 1950s, Egypt were the masters of AFCON’s founding fathers. They had not lost a single game and were defensively strong. However, things were about to change. The 1960s would see the expansion of not only the number of independent nations on the continent, but also of those competing for the AFCON trophy. Between 1959 and 1962, when it was Ethiopia’s chance to host the tournament, 25 more nations had gained independence, such as Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.