| Tourney Name: | African Nations Championship |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Country: | Morocco |
| Num Teams: | 16 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 4 |
| Cities: | 4 |
| Count: | 1 |
| Third: | SDN |
| Fourth: | LBY |
| Matches: | 32 |
| Goals: | 58 |
| Player: | Ayoub El Kaabi |
| Prevseason: | 2016 |
| Nextseason: | 2020 |
The 2018 African Nations Championship, known as the 2018 CHAN for short and for sponsorship purposes as the Total African Nations Championship, was the 5th edition of the biennial association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) featuring players from their respective national leagues. Originally supposed to be hosted in Kenya,[1] [2] it was instead hosted by Morocco from 13 January to 4 February 2018.
The 2016 finalists, DR Congo and Mali, failed to qualify for this edition following their qualification losses, Mali losing 3–2 to Mauritania on aggregate and DR Congo losing to the neighbouring Congo via the away goals rule. Hosts Morocco defeated Nigeria 4–0 in the final to win their first title which made Morocco the first team to win the tournament on home soil.[3] [4] [5]
Following the conclusion of the final of the previous edition in Rwanda on 7 February 2016, CAF announced Kenya as the host nation of the next edition 48 hours later.[6] However, CAF decided to change the host nation on 23 September the following year due to a lack of progress with preparations[7] and open up a new tender process for a replacement team with the deadline of 30 September 2017. The countries who submitted to replace Kenya as hosts are:[8]
The Ethiopian Football Federation did not provide the government's letter of guarantee and were not considered; the CAF Emergency Committee decided on 15 October that year to choose Morocco over Equatorial Guinea.[9] [10]
See main article: 2018 African Nations Championship qualification.
The qualification rounds took place from 20 April to 20 August 2017.[11]
Since Morocco had already qualified in the Northern Zone before replacing Kenya as hosts, their spot in the main phase was re-allocated to their opponents in the Northern Zone final qualifying round, Egypt.[12] However, Egypt declined to participate citing a "congested domestic calendar".[13] As a result, the spot was reverted to Central-East Zone (as originally three teams would participate including original-turned-stripped hosts Kenya), and would go to the winner of a play-off in November 2017 between Ethiopia and Rwanda, the two teams which lost in the Central-East Zone final qualifying round.[14]
The following teams qualified for the group stage of this edition of the tournament:
| Team | Zone | data-sort-type="number" | Appearance | Previous best performance | FIFA ranking at start of event |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd | (2011, 2016) | 45 | |||
| 2nd | (2014) | 96 | |||
| 1st | 146 | ||||
| 3rd | (2016) | 113 | |||
| 2nd | (2011) | 136 | |||
| 4th | (2011, 2014, 2016) | 75 | |||
| 3rd | (2014) | 88 | |||
| (hosts) | 3rd | (2014) | 40 | ||
| 3rd | (2011) | 141 | |||
| 1st | 118 | ||||
| 3rd | (2009) | 74 | |||
| 2nd | (2016) | 65 | |||
| 2nd | (2014) | 99 | |||
| 2nd | (2014) | 44 | |||
| 4th | (2016) | 61 | |||
| 3rd | (2014) | 51 |
This edition of the tournament had matches held in Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir and Tangier.
| width=275 | Casablanca! | width=275 | Marrakesh | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stade Mohamed V | Stade de Marrakech | |||
| Capacity: 45,600 | Capacity: 45,240 | |||
| Tangier | Agadir | |||
| Ibn Batouta Stadium | Stade Adrar | |||
| Capacity: 45,000 | Capacity: 45,480 | |||
Before Kenya was stripped of its hosting rights, its football association planned to use 4 stadiums for this edition of the tournament.[15] However, only Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi and Kasarani Stadium in Kasarani were considered to meet hosting requirements after inspections by CAF, while Mombasa Municipal Stadium in Mombasa and Kinoru Stadium in Meru did not.[16]
See main article: 2018 African Nations Championship squads.
The squads of the participating teams each consisting of 23 players per the tournament's regulation article 72[17] were announced by CAF on 10 January 2018.[18] [19]
A total of 32 match officials (16 referees and 16 assistant referees) were selected for this edition of the tournament, of which 7 were selected to operate the video assistant referee (VAR) system in a CAF competition for the first time ever, beginning at the knockout stages.[20] [21] [22]
The draw for the group stage was held at Sofitel Rabat in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, on 17 November 2017 at 19:30 WET (UTC±0).[23]
The teams were drawn into 4 groups of 4.[24] The hosts Morocco were seeded in Group A. The remaining teams were seeded based on their results in the four most recent editions of the tournament: 2009 (multiplied by 1), 2011 (multiplied by 2), 2014 (multiplied by 3), 2016 (multiplied by 4):[25] [26] [27]
Based on the formula above, the 4 pots were allocated as follows:
| width=25% | Pot 1 | width=25% | Pot 2 | width=25% | Pot 3 | width=25% | Pot 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| valign=top | valign=top | valign=top | valign=top |
The top two teams of each group advance to the knockout stage.
All times are local, WET (UTC±0).[28]
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From this stage onward, the video assistant referee (VAR) system would make its debut in a CAF competition. Extra time and penalty shoot-out were used if necessary to decide the winner, except for the third-place match where penalty shoot-out and no extra time was used if necessary to decide the winner per the competition's regulations article 75.
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See main article: 2018 African Nations Championship Final.
Saleh Al Taher
Walid El Karti Zakaria Hadraf
Gabriel Okechukwu Anthony Okpotu
Walaa Eldin Musa Seif Teiri
Mohamed Sydney Sylla
Patrick Moussombo Salem Ablo Elmutasem Abushnaf Zakaria Alharaish Abdulrahman Khalleefah Achraf Bencharki Ismail Haddad Salaheddine Saidi
Vetunuavi Hambira Absalom Iimbondi Panduleni Nekundi Rabiu Ali Sunday Faleye Dayo Ojo
Thierry Manzi Omer Suleiman
Derrick NsibambiThe following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
| Total Man of the Competition | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayoub El Kaabi | |||
| Top Scorer | |||
| CAF Fair Play Team | |||
| [29] | |||
| Stage | Team 1 | Result | Team 2 | Man of the Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First round of group stage matches | |||||
| Group A | 4–0 | Abdelilah Hafidi | |||
| 1–2 | Saifeldin Malik Bakhit | ||||
| Group B | 0–1 | Vetunuavi Hambira | |||
| 3–1 | Lazarous Kambole | ||||
| Group C | 3–0 | Saleh Al Taher | |||
| 0–0 | Djihad Bizimana | ||||
| Group D | 0–0 | Vá | |||
| 0–1 | Prestige Mboungou | ||||
| Group A | 3–1 | Ayoub El Kaabi | |||
| 1–0 | Omer Suleiman Koko | ||||
| Group B | 0–2 | Augustine Mulenga | |||
| 0–1 | Lloyd Kazapua | ||||
| Group C | 0–1 | Stephen Eze | |||
| 1–0 | Thierry Manzi | ||||
| Group D | 1–0 | Vá | |||
| 2–0 | Junior Makiesse | ||||
| Group A | 0–0 | Akram El Hadi Salim | |||
| 0–1 | Ibrahima Sory Sankhon | ||||
| Group B | 0–0 |  Kouamé N'Guessan | |||
| 1–1 | Teberius Lombard | ||||
| Group C | 0–1 | Elmutasem Abushnaf | |||
| 1–3 | Dayo Ojo | ||||
| Group D | 0–0 | Francoeur Baron Kibamba | |||
| 1–1 | Wend-Panga Bambara | ||||
| Knockout stage matches | |||||
| Quarter-finals | 2–0 | Salaheddine Saidi | |||
| 0–1 | Mohamed Hashim | ||||
| 2–1 (a.e.t.) | Ikechukwu Ezenwa | ||||
| 1–1 (a.e.t.) (3–5 p) | Abdulrahman Khalleefah | ||||
| Semi-finals | 3–1 (a.e.t.) | Ayoub El Kaabi | |||
| 0–1 | Gabriel Okechukwu | ||||
| Third place match | 1–1 (2–4 p) | Muhannad El Tahir | |||
| Final | 4–0 | Zakaria Hadraf | |||