2016 African Nations Championship


The 2016 African Nations Championship was the 4th edition of the African Nations Championship, the biennial international football championship organised by the Confederation of African Football for the men's national teams of Africa featuring exclusively players from their respective national leagues. The tournament was held in Rwanda between 16 January and 7 February 2016. A total of 16 teams played in the tournament.
This edition is the first time that all group runners-up made it into the semi-finals.

Qualification

Rwanda qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining 15 spots were determined by the qualifying rounds, which took place from June to October 2015.

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. Defending champions Libya failed to qualify.
TeamZoneAppearancePrevious best performance
Northern Zone
Northern Zone
Zone West A
Zone West A
Zone West B
Zone West B
Zone West B
Central Zone
Central Zone
Central Zone
Central-East Zone
Central-East Zone
Central-East Zone
Southern Zone
Southern Zone
Southern Zone

Venues

Four stadiums were approved by the CAF.

Kigali
Kigali
Amahoro Stadium
Stade Régional Nyamirambo
Capacity: 30,000
Capacity: 22,000

Butare
Gisenyi
Stade Huye
Umuganda Stadium
Capacity: 20,000
Capacity: 5,000


Squads

Each squad could contain a maximum of 23 players. Only national team players who were playing in their country's own domestic league were eligible to compete in the tournament. For example, a Rwandan player was only eligible to play for the Rwanda national team if he was playing for a Rwandan club.

Draw

The draw for the final tournament of the competition took place on 15 November 2015, 18:30 CAT, in Kigali, Rwanda. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four.
The teams were seeded based on their results in the three most recent final tournaments: 2009, 2011, and 2014 :
Based on the formula above, the four pots were allocated as follows:
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4

  • Group stage

    The top two teams of each group advanced to the quarter-finals.
    ;Tiebreakers
    The teams were ranked according to points. If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:
    1. Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
    2. Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
    3. Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
    4. If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 apply;
    5. Goal difference in all games;
    6. Goals scored in all games;
    7. Drawing of lots.
    All times were local, CAT.

    Group A

    ----
    ----

    Group B

    ----
    ----

    Group C

    ----
    ----

    Group D

    ----
    ----

    Knockout stage

    In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time would be played and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner, except for the third place match where no extra time would be played.

    Penalty

    Quarter-finals

    ----
    ----
    ----

    Semi-finals

    ----

    Third place play-off

    Final

    Goalscorers

    Below is the list of goalscorers.
    ;4 goals
    ;3 goals
    ;2 goals
    ;1 goal
    ;1 own goal
    Below is the list of awards.
    Below is the final ranking.