The 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN) finals will take place in Morocco between 12 January and 4 February.
In February 2016, Kenya was announced as the host nation but in September 2017, CAF decided to change the host nation due to a lack of progress with preparations. Morocco was announced as the host nation in October 2017.
Sixteen teams qualified for the continental tournament which exclusively features players from the respective national championships. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) won the previous competition in Rwanda in 2016, but they failed to qualify for this year’s finals.
Nigeria, who finished third at the 2013 finals in South Africa, are amongst the favorites and they are in Group C along with Libya, Rwanda and Equatorial Guinea.
Group A features tournament hosts Morocco, Sudan, Guinea as well as Mauritania, while Angola, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Congo-Brazzaville are in Group D. Zambia, who knocked out South Africa during the qualifying campaign, are in Group B along with Ivory Coast, Uganda and debutants. Namibia.
The 2014 winners, Libya are the only former champions, who qualified for this year’s competition and they will be hoping to win it for the second time.
Stade Mohamed V, Stade de Marrakech, Stade Ibn Batouta and Stade Adrar are the four stadiums which will be used during this year’s finals.
CHAN tournament in numbers
2009 - The first competition was hosted by Ivory Coast in 2009 and DR Congo won it.
2 - DR Congo are the most successful team in the history of the tournament with two titles.
2 - Ghana have been runners-up twice in the tournament which is a record.
2018 - Equatorial Guinea and Namibia are the two teams which are set to make their debut at the 2018 finals.
32 - Thirty-two match officials (16 referees and 16 assistant referees) were selected for the 2018 tournament.