On September 4, 2006, the African Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) awarded the Africa Cup 2014 to Libya . Libya would have hosted an Africa Cup for the second time since 1982. In May 2010, the CAF decided to only hold the Africa Cup in odd years so that it would no longer take place during the years of the soccer World Cup . The 2014 Africa Cup was therefore brought forward to 2013. In June 2011, the CAF withdrew Libya from hosting the tournament due to the civil war and the associated unclear situation. In August 2011, Libya and the host of the 2017 tournament, South Africa, agreed to swap hosting rights.
On September 24, 2010 the CAF announced that the qualification would take place independently of the qualification for the 2014 World Cup. Due to time constraints, the participants in the final round of the Africa Cup 2013 were determined in three knockout rounds. In a first selection round, the lowest ranked teams in the FIFA world rankings competed against each other in order to reduce the field to 44 teams. Between January 15, 2012 and February 15, 2012, 28 teams competed that were not participants in the 2012 African Cup of Nations. These played out 14 winners in the first and second leg, who in turn competed in a third qualifying round against the 16 participants of the 2012 Africa Cup. The winners qualified for the finals alongside hosts South Africa.
The group draw took place on October 24, 2012. The 16 participating teams were divided into four pots. Host South Africa was the head of group A, defending champion Zambia was head of group C. The other 14 teams were classified according to their performance in the previous three continental tournaments according to the following point system:
The points for the 2012 tournament were weighted three times, for 2010 twice and for 2008 simply.
Pot 1
Pot 2
Pot 3
Pot 4
South AfricaSouth Africa (as hosts set to A1) Zambia (as defending champions set to C1) Ghana (22 points) Ivory Coast (22 points) Zambia Ghana Ivory Coast
With the exception of the last day of the match, the group matches took place as part of double events. All information in local time ( UTC + 2 ); corresponds to Central European Time (CET) + 1 hour.
The games in the final round were played in the knockout system . If there was a draw after the normal playing time of 90 minutes, there would be two extra times for 15 minutes and, if there was still no winner at the end of extra time, a penalty shoot-out .
In the group game between Algeria and Togo, Algerian Yacine Bezzaz bent a goal post of the Togo goal in the 89th minute when it ran into the goal net. Then the goal had to be replaced, which led to 13 minutes of stoppage time. This situation bears a certain resemblance to the Madrid peat fall .
In the group game between Ethiopia and Nigeria, the Ethiopian goalkeeper Sisay Bancha saw the yellow and red card in the 89th minute for a foul in the penalty area. Since the Ethiopian exchange contingent had been used up, field player Addis Hintsa Tekle stood in the gate. However, there was no goalkeeper jersey for this one, so a jersey had to be glued. The result was eight minutes of stoppage time. Addis was unable to save the subsequent penalty to make it 2-0 for Nigeria.