African Cup of Nations

The African Cup of Nations (ACN) starts today. There are sixteen teams divided into four groups, with each team playing the other once. The top two teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals on February 4th. The semifinals will be on the 8th, with the final on the 12th. Most games start at 8:00 or 11:00am PST, with all the games in the final matchday of the group stage kicking off at 10:00am PST.

Group A contains co-hosts Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Zambia, and Libya.
Group B consists of Angola, Burkina Faso, Sudan, and Ivory Coast.
Group C has Tunisia, Morocco, co-hosts Gabon, and Niger.
Group D is Guinea, Mali, Botswana, and Ghana.

The biggest surprise is the absence of three time defending champions Egypt, who upon failure to qualify fired their coach and hired former USA men's national team (MNT) and Chicago Fire coach Bob Bradley. Egypt actually finished last in their group.

Another surprising absence is South Africa, who celebrated at the conclusion of their final qualifying match as if they had qualified, only to be ruled out due to goal differential technicalities. South Africa appeared to qualify based on total group play differential, but the ACN qualifying tie breakers has head-to-head comparisons as the tie breaker. This is in contradiction to FIFA standards (head-to-head comparisons only come into the picture when total points, total differential, and total goals are all tied), and caused quite the controversy. Coincidentally, MLS also uses head-to-head comparisons instead of goal differential after total points as their tie breaker. South Africa appealed the decision, only to later withdraw their appeal. It seems that they may appeal the rule itself, but not their placement in this years edition of the continental championship.

The other big names to miss out on the Cup this year are Cameroon and Nigeria, both regular participants in the World Cup as well as the ACN.

There is some considerable controversy about the timing of the ACN, given that it falls during the European Club season and does not limit itself to international fixture dates. This means that players wishing to represent their country must sacrifice time with their club. This means teams like Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle, and Queens Park Rangers will be missing starters throughout the tournament.