Cape Town hosts African Nations Championships

The 2014 Orange African Nations Championship opens in Cape Town on 11 January. The three-week long football tournament is held every two years, alternating with the Africa Cup of Nations.

Cape Town’s Green Point and Althlone stadiums will host half of the 32 matches, including the opening and concluding games. The other matches will be held in Polokwane and Mangaung.

The 2014 championships, with 16 teams playing, are the third, after those in the Ivory Coast in 2009 (won by The Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Sudan (won by Tunisia) in 2011.

The teams playing in 2014 are Burkina Faso, Burundi. Congo, Congo DR, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Players must be active in their national championships and no ex-pats are allowed, which excludes all the African stars playing in European teams.

The event is administered by the Confederation of African Football and should not be confused with the Africa Cup of Nations, which will be held next in 2015 in Morocco.