While uncertainty hung over the holding of this 33rd edition of the African Cup of Nations, the competition will take place from Sunday January 9 to February 6, in Cameroon. It could not be otherwise for the queen of African football competitions who, since its creation in 1957, has allowed an entire continent to reveal itself.
The first edition of the Africa Cup is indeed no coincidence. It was organized on February 10, 1957, just two days after the creation of the African Football Confederation (CAF). A historic breakthrough, because it is the first real union on the continent after World War II. The Inter-State Organization of African Unity will not see the light of day until 1963.
But it was not all easy to achieve this result. A year earlier, in June 1956, Fifa rejected this African initiative as a whole. What then had the gift of angering Abdelaziz Salem, representative of Egyptian football.
“If we are not all treated equally here, there is no question of our being here with you.”
Abdelaziz Salem“From Khartoum to Accra, 51 years of African Cup of Nations history”, cameroon-info.net, Benoît BALLA, January 19, 2008.
The round ball was already at the time much more than a sporting story, since the birth of an Africa of football was to prolong the birth of a free Africa, which then began to emancipate itself from colonial tutelage. It was this standoff in 1956 that marked the starting point for the birth of the African Cup. The culmination of a long process, which has its roots in the aftermath of World War II.
At that time, the movement for the self-determination of the peoples of the continent is gaining momentum, in the line of the precursors Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah or Léopold Sédar Senghor. It must be said that article 3 of the Atlantic Charter of 1941, namely “respect the right of peoples to choose their form of government, restore the sovereignty of those who have been deprived of it by force “, is incorporated into the United Nations Charter of June 26, 1945. This suggests that the colonial empires will be called into question at the end of the war.
Africa then only had 3 independent states (Liberia, South Africa, Egypt) and it was Libya which was the first to initiate the decolonization movement by declaring its independence on December 24, 1951. Other uprisings also took place. set up across the continent, but the colonial powers of the time in Africa – France and the UK in the lead – do not want to let their empires crumble. This is evidenced by a landmark conflict, this time in Asia: the Indochina War. The French defeat and the fall of Diên Biên Phu, in 1954, will be the symbol of the disintegration of the European colonies.
Following this French defeat, the various countries still colonized want to accelerate the process of independence. To this end, a major international conference was organized in Bandung, Indonesia, in April 1955. 29 African and Asian countries came together for the first time to promote the self-determination of peoples and bring decolonized countries onto the international scene, so-called “Third World”.
A driving force, which will lead during this conference to the creation of a third way, the movement of the non-aligned. It forms an alternative to the Cold War and the opposition between the western bloc of the United States and the eastern bloc of the USSR. Egypt, and in particular its future President Nasser, will play a crucial role in creating this new independent path.
A year later, Egypt will strengthen its geopolitical position thanks to an event: the Suez Canal crisis. Indeed, since 1955 Egypt has traded with the USSR and, at the same time, requested financial and technical assistance from the United States to build a dam on the Nile. The latter refuse. In retaliation, Egypt regained control and nationalized the Suez Canal Company on July 26, 1956, which previously belonged mainly to British and French shareholders.
Their Israeli ally then invaded the Egyptian Sinai, soon followed by France and the United Kingdom. The influence and the American and Soviet political pressure will finally lead to a withdrawal of Western troops in November 1956, marking the end of the conflict but above all a serious setback for the former colonial powers.
“Political reasons certainly guided, in 1956, Fifa not to endorse the creation of the African Football Confederation. [et de la Coupe d’Afrique] because of the geopolitical weight of Egypt under Nasser, considered a great leader in the emancipation of the Third World and the colonized African continent “, explains Chérif Ghemmour, journalist at So Foot and correspondent for RFI.
“The Western powers, and especially England, feared the emergence of this new world.”
Chérif Ghemmour, journalist at So Foot and correspondent for RFI
And football in all of this? This sport takes part in this diplomatic “offensive” to make Africa known as a free continent. As a united Africa. An ideology then carried by Pan-Africanism, according to which the whole of the African continent must be independent and the African nations united among themselves. What could be better than sport to turn ideas into action. Egypt will once again be in the driver’s seat.
“It is partly under the impetus of the Egyptian Abdelaziz Salem, first member of the executive committee of Fifa, that the African Football Confederation was born”, Explain Abdellah Boulma, freelance journalist specializing in African football.
“Egypt is one of the first independent teams on the African continent to participate in a World Cup, in 1934 [et aux Jeux olympiques de 1924]. A nation at the political and economic vanguard of Africa. “
Abdellah Boulma, freelance journalist specializing in African football
It is also this same Abdelaziz Salem who is in charge during the 30th Congress of Fifa, on June 8, 1956 in Lisbon. Behind the scenes, he organized a momentous meeting in the lounges of the Avenida hotel with six African delegates (Youssef Mohamed and Mohamed Latif for Egypt, Mohamed Abdel Halim, Abdel Rahim Shaddad and Mohamed Ali Badawi for Sudan as well as Fred W. Fell for South Africa). Their idea: to propose the creation of an African football confederation (CAF) and the organization of an exclusive competition between African national teams.
The idea makes sense since Fifa lifted, in 1953, its ban on the creation of continental confederations, to allow European federations to create UEFA in 1954. However, the great organization of world football refuses the request of the. Africa. Officially because there are too few African members (four). According to Lotfi Wada, journalist specializing in African football, “members of Fifa (especially Argentina and some European countries) were reluctant to this idea because they simply felt that African football was poorly developed at the time, both in terms of infrastructure and especially competitions. “
Unofficially, Fifa is still a pro-European organization (headed by Briton Arthur Drewry) and it is still reluctant to leave the field open to the emancipation of one of its former “meadow squares “.
The African delegations, outraged, do not give in, which leads Abdelaziz Salem to threaten to leave the congress with his African colleagues. Fifa, wanting to avoid any controversy, will finally backtrack. A year later, on February 8, 1957, CAF was formalized at the Grand Hotel in Khartoum in Sudan.
This first organization of African football then included four countries (South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan). Its first president will be none other than Abdelaziz Salem. To materialize this union, the first African Cup was organized from February 10 to 16, 1957 in Sudan. A place that was not by chance, since at that time Sudan was the last African country to gain independence on January 1, 1956.
Everything is then united to celebrate this first manifestation of a united Africa. However, the party will be ruined because only three teams participate. South Africa refuses to come, it does not want to present a “multiracial” team. This country is then in full implementation of its terrible policy of segregation, apartheid. A long troubled period then began for the homeland of Nelson Mandela, who would not find his way back to the African Cup until much later, in 1996 at home. Only Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan are therefore participating in the competition. The draw having already been made (semi-finals Egypt-Sudan and Ethiopia-South Africa), the Ethiopian selection wins by forfeit.
It is therefore in the brand new “Municipal Stadium” in Khartoum that the very first African Cup begins, on February 10, 1956. Two matches will take place. The first will be the semi-final between Sudan and Egypt, won by the selection of the pharaohs (2-1) thanks to a saving goal from Mohamed Diab Al Attar, nicknamed Ad-Diba.
The latter will be the hero of the second match on February 16, the final, since it is he who will score all the goals of the 4-0 inflicted on Ethiopia. In front of more than 30,000 spectators, Egypt thus becomes the first African champion in history, the first selection to win the Abdelaziz Salem trophy, in tribute to the founding father of the African Cup.
This first African Cup lays the foundations for continental football and increases the already growing popularity of the round ball. Bases which, according to Lofti Wada, “will be reinforced 7 years later, in 1964, with the creation of the African Champions Clubs Cup (ancestor of the CAF Champions League) in order to allow African players to compete regularly. Two events which announce to the world the administrative structuring of African football. “
The African Cup for its part will be part of the evolution of the African continent and will become the showcase of the various newly independent countries and their colors. 6 participants in 1963, 16 in 1996, 24 in 2021… but above all 52 national teams present in the qualifying phase. A competition that will be keen to highlight these new nations, as evidenced by the change of name in 1965: the African Cup becomes the African Cup of Nations (CAN).
Since 1968, this celebration of African football has taken place continuously every two years (although it has been organized since 2013 in odd years to avoid taking place in the same year as a World Cup). A historic competition which is part of the world sports calendar and mobilizes the attention and passions of peoples and States. As if the CAN were ultimately a reflection of the vitality and complexity of the African continent.
Kevin Veyssière
@FC Geopolitics
“From Khartoum to Accra, 51 years of African Cup of Nations history”, cameroon-info.net, Benoît BALLA, January 19, 2008.