The 1996 Africa Cup ( English : African Cup of Nations , French : Coupe d'Afrique des Nations ) was the 20th game of the African continental football championship and took place in South Africa from January 19 to February 3 . The tournament was originally supposed to take place in Kenya . However, Kenya gave back the hosting of the tournament, whereupon the organization of the CAF tournament was awarded to South Africa.
As in previous years, a qualification to reduce the field of participants took place with the new record number of 44 applicants this time to the sixteen final round participants scheduled for the first time, with the host South Africa and defending champion Nigeria automatically qualifying. Ultimately, the following teams qualified: Angola , Algeria , Egypt , Burkina Faso , Ivory Coast , Gabon , Ghana , Cameroon , Liberia , Mozambique , Zambia , Sierra Leone , South Africa , Tunisia and Zaire . However, defending champion Nigeria did not appear. As a possible successor, Guinea declined to participate due to lack of preparation, so that the tournament was finally played with only 15 teams.
Due to the increased number of participants, the game was played with four groups of four teams each. Because of the withdrawal from Nigeria, one group only played with three teams. The two best teams in each group then played the tournament winner from the quarter-finals in the knockout system as usual . The games were played at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, the Kings Park Stadium in Durban, Soccer City in Johannesburg and the Boet Erasmus Stadium in Port Elizabeth.
Hosts South Africa used their home advantage to win the tournament and become African champions for the first time in football, qualifying the team for the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup .
South Africa (1st title)
Kalusha Bwalya (5 goals)
yellow cards
Yellow-red cards
Red cards
Egypt
Cameroon
Angola
Algeria
Sierra Leone
Burkina Faso
Gabon
Zaire
Liberia
Nigeria
Ghana
Tunisia
Ivory Coast
Mozambique