African Nations Cup to be held in odd years from 2013

May 15 – The African Nations Cup tournament will be staged in odd years from 2013, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided today.

This means two editions of the African football flagship event being staged within a year as Gabon and Equatorial Guinea co-host it in 2012 followed by Libya 12 months later.

After an erratic early life with odd and even-year hosting, the Nations Cup has been staged biennially during an even year since the 1968 tournament in Ethiopia.

But even-year tournaments meant every second one was held just months before the quadrennial World Cup and some blame this for the poor showing of teams from the continent in the event.

Switching the Nations Cup to odd years has been on the CAF agenda for some time and President Issa Hayatou had said during the 2008 tournament in Ghana that he had no objections.