1972 African Cup of Nations explained

Tourney Name:	African Cup of Nations
Year:	1972
Other Titles:	Coupe d'Afrique des Nations 1972
Country:	Cameroon
Country-Flagvar:	1961
Dates:	23 February – 5 March
Num Teams:	8
Venues:	2
Cities:	2
Champion:	Congo
Champion-Flagvar:	1970
Count:	1
Second:	Mali
Third:	Cameroon
Third-Flagvar:	1961
Fourth:	Zaire
Matches:	16
Goals:	53
Attendance:	425000
Top Scorer:	Fantamady Keita (5 goals)
Player:	François M'Pelé
Prevseason:	1970
Nextseason:	1974

The 1972 African Cup of Nations was the eighth edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa (CAF). It was hosted by Cameroon, in the cities of Yaoundé and Douala. Just like in 1970, the field of eight teams was split into two groups of four. The People's Republic of the Congo won its first championship, beating Mali in the final 3−2.

Qualified teams

See main article: 1972 African Cup of Nations qualification.

For the first time, Ethiopia did not compete. The 8 qualified teams are:

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament
	Hosts		(1970)
	Holders		(1957, 1959, 1963, *1970*)
	2nd round winners		(debut)
	2nd round winners		(debut)
	2nd round winners		(debut)
	2nd round winners		(1968)
	2nd round winners		(debut)
	2nd round winners		(1965, 1968, 1970)

Notes

Squads

See main article: 1972 African Cup of Nations squads.

Venues

The competition was played in two venues in Yaoundé and Douala.

Yaoundé		Douala
Stade Omnisports		Stade de la Réunification
Capacity: 38,720		Capacity: 30,000

Group stage

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking: