The tournament takes place from 13 January to 4 February.
The 2022 African Nations Championship (CHAN) will be the 7th edition of the biennial football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) featuring national teams that only consist of players currently playing in their respective local leagues.
This edition of the tournament will be held in Algeria from 13 January to 4 February 2023. Algeria were officially named as hosts of the 2022 edition on 29 September 2018 at an executive committee meeting held on 10 September 2020 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
Originally, the tournament was scheduled to take place from 10 July to 1 August 2022 but CAF rescheduled the tournament to January 2023 following an announcement at an executive committee meeting held on 10 September 2020 via video conferencing.
The organizing body cited the postponement of the 2020 CHAN tournament to 2021 and the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the already-scheduled 2022 FIFA World Cup that took place in November–December 2022.
For the first time in the history of CHAN, 18 countries will be competing for the title – an increase from the previous 16 nations.
The participating teams have been divided into five groups, three of four teams and two of three teams each with the matches being played in four venues at four cities across the host nation – Algiers, Oran, Constantine and Annaba.
The top teams in each group of four teams advance to the quarter-finals. The top team in each group of three also progresses to the last eight.
In the tournament, only Madagascar will be making their first ever appearance. Two time champions Morocco, who go in as the cup holders, will be seeking to defend their crown and make it three title wins in a row should they participate in the competition after threatening to withdraw owing to political tensions with the hosts.
The only other two time champions Democratic Republic of Congo (2009, 2016) will also be seeking to become the first side to lift three titles to their name. Libya (2014) and Tunisia (2011) are the other champions of the competition with one title win apiece.
Uganda, Sudan, and Ethiopia will represent the CECAFA region, christened the Central Eastern Zone for the purposes of the qualifiers.
Milutin Sredojević-led Uganda edged out Tanzania in the second round of the qualifiers to book their ticket while Ethiopia saw off Rwanda via a sole goal in the second leg after playing to a barren draw in the first leg, with Sudan seeing off Djibouti.
Groups
Group A (Baraki Stadium): Algeria, Libya, Mozambique, Ethiopia
Group B (Stade du 19 Mai 1956, Annaba): DR Congo, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal
Group C (Chahid Hamlaoui Stadium, Constantine): Morocco, Sudan, Madagascar, Ghana
Group D (Olympic Stadium, Oran): Mali, Angola, Mauritania
Group E (Olympic Stadium, Oran): Cameroon, Congo, Niger
