The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2019 or CAN 2019), known as the Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The tournament was hosted by Egypt. The competition was held from 21 June to 19 July 2019, as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017 to move the Africa Cup of Nations from January/February to June/July for the first time. It was also the first Africa Cup of Nations expanded from 16 to 24 teams.
The tournament was initially scheduled to be hosted by Cameroon. Cameroon would have hosted the competition for the first time since 1972. They were also the title holders after winning the previous edition. On 30 November 2018, Cameroon was stripped of hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations due to delays in the delivery of infrastructure, the Boko Haram insurgency and the Anglophone Crisis. However, the country was given the right to host the next edition of the tournament. On 8 January 2019, Egypt was chosen by the CAF Executive Committee as the host nation of the competition. The tournament was also moved from the original dates of 15 June – 13 July to 21 June – 19 July due to Ramadan.
Cameroon were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Nigeria. Hosts Egypt were eliminated at the same stage after losing 0–1 to South Africa. Algeria defeated Senegal 1–0 in the final, winning their second title and first since 1990, while Nigeria came third after beating Tunisia 1–0 in the third-place play-off match.
Host selection
After the CAF Executive Committee meeting on 24 January 2014, it was announced that there were six official candidates for the 2019 edition:
Bids: Algeria Cameroon Ivory Coast
Rejected Bids: Guinea / Guinea-Bissau / Liberia / Sierra Leone Kenya / Uganda Malawi / Zambia / Zimbabwe Nigeria Senegal
This list was different from the list of the host nation bids for both the 2019 and 2021 edition of the Cup of Nations as announced by CAF in November 2013, with Gabon also on the original list, but Cameroon not on it. Among the six official candidates, Algeria, Guinea and Ivory Coast also bid for hosting the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
Democratic Republic of the Congo had originally put themselves forward as host candidates but withdrew in July 2014. Security concerns and threats from various militant groups particularly in the eastern part of the country were an early issue with a Congolese bid. Before bidding solo Guinea was part of a four-way joint bid with Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia, similarly Zambia was originally part of a joint bid with Malawi and Zimbabwe. Other nations who expressed early interest in hosting were 2013 champions Nigeria, Senegal, and a joint bid of Kenya and Uganda.
The decision of the host country was postponed from early 2014 to grant each bidding country adequate time to receive the inspection delegation. After the final vote at the CAF Executive Committee meeting, on 20 September 2014, the CAF announced the hosts for the 2019, 2021 and 2023 AFCON tournaments: 2019 to Cameroon, 2021 to Ivory Coast, and 2023 to Guinea.
New bid process
It was expected that Cameroon would host this edition but it was sidelined by the CAF on 30 November 2018 in Accra, Ghana for non-compliance with the specifications, CAF announced that they would be receiving applications for the new hosts until 14 December 2018.
Bids: Egypt South Africa
The organization of the competition was finally awarded to Egypt on 8 January 2019 by the CAF Executive Committee meeting in Dakar, Senegal. Voters had a choice between two countries after Morocco's sports minister confirmed that his country was not interested in hosting: Egypt and South Africa.
North Africa will host the tournament for the first time in 13 years after being hosted by Egypt also in 2006.
This is the fifth time that Egypt will host the African Cup after 1959, 1974, 1986 and the 2006 to become the country that has hosted it for the most times in the continent.
Prize money
The CAF increased in 2019, the prize money to be shared among the teams participating in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Sponsorship
In July 2016, Total secured an eight-year sponsorship package from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to support 10 of its principal competitions. Total started with the Africa Cup of Nations that was held in Gabon in 2017 therefore renaming it to Total Africa Cup of Nations.