African Cup of Nations 2008 Primer
The 2008 installment of the African Cup of Nations begins 17 days from now on January 20th, when hosts Ghana take on Guinea in Accra. As we countdown over the next 16 days we’re going to profile a team a day so that everyone’s ready for the tournament. Once we kick off, be sure to visit our home page, where we’ll have the latest news, LiveBlogs of games, a bit of commentary and as many videos and images as we can find. Below, there’s a quick guide below with key dates, a (very) rough guide to the four groups and a few other websites to keep an eye on for all ACN related happenings.
Key dates
January 10th: Deadline for final 23-man rosters to be submitted.
January 20th: First game: Ghana vs Guinea in Accra. 5 p.m. kick off local time.
January 20th to 31st: Group games. Top two from each of the four groups go through.
February 3rd and 4th: Quarter-finals
February 7th: Semi-finals
February 10th: Final
(Very) Rough Guide to Groups
Group A: Ghana, Morocco, Guinea, Namibia
Hosts Ghana will expect to top the group, while Namibia will probably expect a tough couple of weeks. So in theory it’s between Morocco and Guinea for second place.
Group B: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Mali, Benin
Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Mali all have strong sides with world-famous players and will expect to qualify. One of them won’t make it. Benin will just be hoping for the best.
Group C: Egypt, Cameroon, Zambia, Sudan
Shoudl be cut and dried with Egypt and Cameroon in the top two and Zambia and Sudan in the bottom two. But we all know football’s never that simple.
Group D: Tunisia, Senegal, South Africa, Angola
Another toughie. Tunisia and Senegal look strongest on paper, but Angola put in a respectable showing at the World Cup while South Africa should be all fired up in preparation for hosting the 2010 World Cup. Though Bafana Bafana could regret the decision to leave Benni McCarthy in Blackburn .
Websites
Obviously we’ll be paying a lot of attention to the 26th African Cup of Nations here on World Cup Blog. A lot of attention. Both here and on our selection of African national team blogs. But the internet’s a big place filled with countless other websites that will also be covering the tournament. Here’s a quick guide to the sites worth keeping an eye on:
Ghana CAN 2008 - the official tournament website, run by the Local Organizing Committee.
CAF Online - the official site of the Confederation of African Football.
Road to 2010 World Cup Final - knowledgeable and easy to read blog that has been getting as excited as us for African Cup of Nations. Written by our Valenica Offside blogger Cesar.
BBC Sport - Football - Africa - the Beeb’s African football website, where they’re guaranteed to give plenty of coverage to the tournament.
Think Ghana - CAN 2008 - the Ghanaian sports site have a special African Cup of Nations page which is currently hosting a steady stream of aggregated ACN related news.
MTNfootball.com - MTN is the big African Cup of Nations sponsor, and has a dedicated ACN website with news and results.
football365.co.za - African sister site (I think) to the legendary football365, featuring not just news but articles and opinion on everything African football related.
Kick Off - South African magazine with a quality website, featuring a dedicated African Cup of Nations section. Also see Kick Off South Africa, Kick Off Nigeria and Kick Off Ghana for news specific to those national teams.
Naija Football Fans - lively forum for Nigeria fans with plenty of Super Eagles discussion.
Ghana FA - official website of the Ghanaian Football Association, with a steady of flow of national team and tournament news.
Modern Ghana - nice looking news site with a constantly updated sports section.
All Africa Soccer NewsWire - aggregator of soccer stories from 125 (it says here) different African new sources.
Namibia Sport - Online location of Namibian Sport magazine.
Reuters Africa Cup of Nations 2008 - dedicated home page with all the latest ACN news and results from no less a source than Reuters.
3Atelesud - French language TV company who may be showing the tournament on-line (see comments.)
JumpTV - Broadcasting the tournament on-line. Further info on watching Africa Cup of Nations online.
If anyone comes across any other sites with good, dedicated African Cup of Nations content, please let me know in the comments and I’ll add it to the list.
UPDATE: I can confirm that the online coverage works. If you want to sign up it’s $29.99 just for the groups stage and another $14.99 for the knockouts.
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 45 comments.
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By Warren | January 18th, 2008 at 9:54 am 
By Warren | January 18th, 2008 at 9:54 am By Warren | January 18th, 2008 at 9:55 am By Warren | January 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am 
these matches can be viewed at boachannel.com
By Cyril | January 18th, 2008 at 10:32 am Ken suggested that ESPN in the USA is going to show the matches live… I doubt that! If I’m wrong anyone knows which ESPN1 0r ESPN2? By the way, I’d like to see CAMEROON VS GHANA at some point in this tournament, they haven’t met in awhile…or never!!!
Posted from 
United States
By AhlyCorner | January 20th, 2008 at 10:17 am Hey Guys how About a FREE BRODCASTING OF ALL GAMES?
http://www.AhlyCorner.com
Say Thanks if u wannnnnnaaaa
Enjoy the African Cup boys and girls.
Posted from 
Canada
By fransenkono | January 20th, 2008 at 9:51 pm football is not mathematic where one plus one is always equal to two, in football miracle is where happen. i will not be surprised if Ghana lose or draw with Namibia or Namibia come second in this group so lets wait and see
By Dwayne | January 22nd, 2008 at 4:30 am Whats Wrong with Nigeria??? god! Somebody somewhere do something! George Bush Please intervain! Nigeria needs you! lol Why is it soo HARD for Nigeria “Super Eagle” (more like SUPER WEAK EAGLES) to Win a SINGLE Game?
WE HAVE TO WIN THE AFRICAN CUP of NATIONS 2008! Come on guys for once in YOUR LIVES SUPRISE US!!!
By diddy | January 22nd, 2008 at 5:43 am That’s the nature of an eagle,good looking but less effective.Always going for the food that every bird can get even while at the point of death.They are not the loins nor the stars.Hey vogt scheiss dar auf und tu nur deine beste draus.
Posted from 
Switzerland
By jalilu bawa | January 22nd, 2008 at 7:34 am iam the one soccer fun in ghana my name isjalil,i hate my player missing chances without scored ,when it reach that time then i will be nevouse,my expection is to score e any chance u get i hope these listing to me will accept my dissicion thank you
yuor fun
jalil
By Dan baballe Sani sheka kano Nigeria | January 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 am We in Nigeria, but our players there not doing well, i did`nt no what is the problems we are looking for our players if we`re not doing we can`t come to the second round please and please our coach and our players help us to take this cup since one nineteen some years we din`t take the cup From Dan baballe Sani sheka Bus stop Kano Nigeria boys
Posted from 
Ukraine
By badejo | January 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 am i wish i can get more information on africa cup of nations 2008 going on thanks
Posted from 
Nigeria
By filyn | January 22nd, 2008 at 8:27 pm Look. The super eagles is made up of bunch of players that make soo much money and are not really conserned about winning the tournament rather attaining pride for their individual selves. Look at the way they played against Ivory Coast, makes me dont even wont to watch any of their games any more. BIG DISSAPOINTMENT!!
Posted from United States
By filyn | January 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 pm i think we should get fresh bloods, that way if we loose, we blame it on lack of experience. at least fresh blood would play his ass off to get looked at by international scouts
Posted from United States
By Alex | January 24th, 2008 at 9:59 am Hi Daryl,
here’s is a site with quite a good coverage on the africa nations cup
http://football.uk.reuters.com/african-cup-of-nations-2008/
Keep up the good work.
Have a nice day,
Alex
Posted from 
Sweden
By Daryl | January 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am Thanks Alex, will add it to the list. Appreciate it.
By filyn | January 25th, 2008 at 4:12 pm COULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHY YAKUBU STILL PLAYS FOOTBALL. HE NEEDS TO QUIT PLAYING COS THERE ARE PLAYERS OUT THERE THAT ACTUALLY WANT TO SCORE GOALS FOR THE COUNTRY!!
Posted from United States
By filyn | January 25th, 2008 at 4:14 pm I DONT THINK THIS TEAM IS GOING ANYWHERE!!!! THEY LOOSING IT.
Posted from United States
By filyn | January 25th, 2008 at 4:15 pm I DONT THINK THE TEAM IS GOING ANYWHERE, THEY MAKE TOO MUCH MONEY TO BE PLAYIONG LIKE FOOLS!!
Posted from United States
By seun | January 29th, 2008 at 3:00 pm you can see ur self that they are going somewhare
By kelvin | February 3rd, 2008 at 12:59 pm pls can someone tell me free websit i can go and see the africa cup 2008 live
Posted from 
France
By Penjoka | February 3rd, 2008 at 2:40 pm Go Cameroon Go!!! This is our cup to bring HOME. We are going to build bio sand filters to have clean drinking water especially in our local communities. Contact me on info@lwdgc-africa.org and I will be able to construct the sand filters in your community. We do need support from other star players. Thanks
Pete Njo
CEO/Founder
Life and Water Development Group, Cameroon
By Penjoka | February 3rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm Go Cameroon Go!!! This is our cup to bring HOME. We are going to build bio sand filters to have clean drinking water especially in our local communities. Contact me on info@lwdgc-africa.org and I will be able to construct the sand filters in your community. We do need support from other star players.
Visit our website http://www.lwdgc-africa.org and see the great work we are doing, changing lives and improving Health for everyone.
Thanks
Pete Njo
CEO/Founder
Life and Water Development Group, Cameroon
Tel.: +237 77 71 62 88
Website: http://www.lwdgc-africa.org
By Sadek | February 5th, 2008 at 12:39 am go pharoah go, egypt is the best of all, we will take the cup again
Posted from 
United Arab Emirates
By Jimmy B | February 23rd, 2008 at 3:07 pm Well done Egypt!! they deserved to win!!
Posted from 
United Kingdom
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