2012 African Cup of Nations

The African Cup of Nations gets under way on the 21^st January 2012, in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea the host nations. Cote d' Ivoire are the favourites at odds of 44/27. In the last decade of this bi-annual competition they have also been heavily tipped to win it. Though to date their only win was in 1992.

In the 2010 competition they met Algeria in the quarter finals where they led at half time conceding a late equaliser in second half of the game only to lose it in extra-time. Even worse in the 2008 competition where they met Egypt in the final again leading at half time they conceded late goals to be beaten by Egypt.

The second favourites for this years competition Ghana at odds of 9/2 have been regulars in the competition are often favourites or second favourites yet it is 30 years since they last won the competition.

Then third in the list of favourites is Senegal a country who's best performance to date is runner up in the 2002 competition. Who did not even qualify for the 2010 competition and exited the the 2008 competition in the first round of matches yet are at odds of 7/1.

Cote d' Ivoire are entitled to be favourites on FIFA zonal ranking and the fact that many of the other best teams of the continent will not be there this time. Egypt the most dominant team in the history of the competition with 7 wins one runners up and three 3^rd place awards. They are followed by Ghana and Cameroon on 4 wins each. Cameroon,Congo DR,Egypt all failed to qualify for this competition and Nigeria were barred from international competition for two years by their country's president.

Below is a list of this years qualified teams.

Guinea EQ, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana

Libya, Sudan, Niger, Botswana, Senegal, Bukina Faso, Morocco, Mali,

Zambia, Angola, Tunisia, Guinea.

Of the teams that we could call the outsider's that might be of interest I would like to nominate Zambia and Angola. I doubt either team would get to the final but they could progress to the quarter final stages. Something Angola has never done to my knowledge and Zambia last did in 1996. Returning to the Cote d' Ivoire prospects I must include this quote from their coach which I think must resonate with all football manager's. The coach Francois Zahoui said “We go to each Cup of Nations as super favourites and come back disappointed.”.