1957 African Cup of Nations

1957 African Cup of Nations

كأس أمم أفريقيا 1957
Tournament details
Host country	Sudan
Dates	10–16 February
Teams	3
Venue(s)	1
Final positions
Champions	Egypt (1st title)
Runners-up	Ethiopia
Third place	Sudan
Tournament statistics
Matches played	2
Attendance	60,000 (30,000 per match)
Top scorer(s)	El-Diba (5 goals)
Best player(s)	El-Diba
1959 →

The 1957 African Cup of Nations was the 1st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The competition took place between 10 and 16 February 1957. It was hosted by Sudan.

Organized by the African football continental association CAF, only three teams took part: Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. South Africa, which had originally been registered, was excluded from the tournament due to its refusal to enter a multi-ethnic team, so only two games took place. Both games were played in the Municipal Stadium in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. Egypt won the tournament and became the first African football champions in history.

On the African continent, South Africa created the South African Football Association in 1892, then joined FIFA in 1910, before leaving in 1924 and returning in 1952. Then, Egypt created its federation on 3 December 1921 and joined FIFA in 1923; then Sudan created its federation while it was under Anglo-Egyptian domination in 1936 and joined FIFA in 1948. Finally, Ethiopia created its federation in 1943 and joined FIFA under the name of Abyssinia in 1952. These were the first nations to organize themselves into an independent selection and to join FIFA.

The integration of these four African nations into FIFA was incomplete and this was evident in the organisation of the World Cup qualifiers: in 1934, only Egypt took part in the World Cup qualifiers (against Mandatory Palestine) in the Africa–Asia group and took part in the 1934 World Cup, making it the first African nation in the World Cup. In 1938, Egypt was transferred to a European group but withdrew. In 1950, no team was registered and in 1954, only Egypt played in the qualifiers in the European zone against Italy. The involvement of African teams in the qualifiers was either with Asia or Europe and this led to the idea of creating an African confederation.

South Africa was drawn to play Ethiopia in the semi-finals, but were disqualified due to apartheid.^[1] Ethiopia therefore had a bye to the final, whilst in the other semi-final at Municipal Stadium in Khartoum, the Egyptians beat the host nation 2–1.^[2] In the final, Egypt beat Ethiopia 4–0, with all four goals scored by El-Diba, who finished the tournament as top scorer with five goals. Only two games were played in this first edition.^[1]

Four teams were due to take part in the tournament: Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Africa, but the latter was disqualified from participating due to problems related to Apartheid.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on
Sudan	Hosts	8 July 1956
Egypt	Invitee	8 July 1956
Ethiopia	Invitee	8 July 1956

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South Africa were disqualified due to the country's apartheid policies; Ethiopia advanced to the final by walkover.

5 goals

• Ad-Diba – four of the five goals were scored in Egypt's 4–0 defeat of Ethiopia in the final. ^[3][4]

1 goal

• Raafat Attia – first ever goal scorer in Africa Cup of Nations.^[4]
• Boraî Bashir — "some sources report the Sudan goal-scorer as Seddiq Mohammed Manzul, but contemporary reports mention that "Seddiq passed the ball to Boraî who scored."^[5][6]

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