This tournament has been run since 1957 with the 2000 edition being the 22^nd time it has been held. This tournament is bi-annual and is held in the early part of the year when most European countries are in winter break. The tournament was due to be run in Zimbabwe but they were judged by CAF to be not ready and were stripped of the right to host the event. Ghana and Nigeria were asked to step in as they had recently hosted international tournaments, the African and World U/20 Championship.

Ghana and Egypt have won the tournament the most, both with four triumphs. The other tournament winners have been spread over a wide amount of countries as shown below.

There were not many upsets in the group stage. The main contender who was knocked out was Morocco, in a tough group which also included other World Cup qualifiers, Nigeria and Tunisia. Ivory Coast were also knocked out and were subsequently held in a military camp for three days. Three of the four group winners: Cameroon, South Africa and Nigeria won their quarter-finals but the fourth Egypt, the defending champions, lost to Tunisia. Ghana, one of the hosts lost to South Africa. Two goals from Tijani Babangida gave Nigeria a 2-0 win over South Africa. Samuel Eto’o and Patrick Mboma continued scoring in Cameroon’s 3-0 win over Tunisia. South Africa won third-place in a penalty shoot-out with Shaun Bartlett securing the top goalscorer crown. This left two teams; Nigeria and Cameroon in the final, for the third time in African Nations Cup. Cameroon had won the previous two and continued this streak winning again, but not without controversy. The final score ended 2-2 and there was a penalty shoot-out. Victor Ikpeba’s penalty hit the underside of the bar, the ball was shown by TV to have bounced in before going out of the goal, but the referee missed it. This let Cameroon’s captain Rigobert Song to score the final penalty to win the shoot-out 4-3.

Group Stage

Group A

22/1 Ghana           1-1 Cameroon

24/1 Ivory Coast   1-1 Togo

27/1 Ghana           2-0 Togo

28/1 Cameroon     3-0 Ivory Coast

31/1 Ghana           0-2 Ivory Coast

31/1 Cameroon     0-1 Togo

Group B

23/1 Gabon           1-3 South Africa

24/1 Algeria          0-0 DR Congo

27/1 DR Congo    0-1 South Africa

29/1 Algeria          3-1 Gabon

  2/2 Algeria          1-1 South Africa

  2/2 DR Congo     0-0 Gabon

Group C

23/1 Egypt             2-0 Zambia

25/1 Burkina Faso 1-3 Senegal

28/1 Egypt            1-0 Senegal

29/1 Burkina Faso 1-1 Zambia

  1/2 Burkina Faso 2-4 Egypt

  1/2 Senegal         2-2 Zambia

Group D

23/1 Nigeria        4-2 Tunisia

25/1 Congo         0-1 Morocco

28/1 Nigeria        0-0 Congo

29/1 Morocco     0-0 Tunisia

  3/2 Nigeria        2-0 Morocco

  3/2 Congo         0-1 Tunisia

Quarter-Finals

  6/2 Cameroon    2-1 Algeria

  6/2 South Africa 1-0 Ghana

  7/2 Egypt           0-1 Tunisia

  7/2 Nigeria         2-1 Senegal

Semi-Finals

10/2 South Africa 0-2 Nigeria

10/2 Cameroon    3-0 Tunisia

3rd-Place Play-Off                      PENALTIES

12/2 South Africa 2-2 Tunisia            4-3

Final

13/2 Nigeria         2-2 Cameroon       3-4

Cameroon were worthy winners, despite the controversy, with Lauren Etame Mayer named player of the tournament. Patrick Mboma and Marc-Vivien Foe were also impressive performers. Nigeria made a successful return after missing the last two tournaments after withdrawing in 1996 after a request from military dictator Sani Abacho and then consequently being banned from the 1998 tournament. The standard of play in the championships is improving and Ghana/Nigeria had a reasonable performance as hosts.

Top Goalscorer

5 - Shaun Bartlett         - South Africa

4 - Patrick Mboma        - Cameroon

4 - Samuel Eto’o           - Cameroon

3 - Hossan Hassan       - Egypt

3 - Julius Aghahowa      - Nigeria

3 - Austin Okocha         - Nigeria

2 - Abdelhafid Tasfaout  - Algeria

2 - Ousmane Sanou      - Burkina Faso

2 - Marc-Vivien Foe       - Cameroon

2 - Kwame Ayew           - Ghana

2 - Victor Ikpeba           - Nigeria

2 - Tijani Babangida      - Nigeria

2 - Henri Camara          - Senegal

2 - Siyabonga Nomvete - South Africa

2 - Ali Zitouni               - Tunisia

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