After quite a bit of rumblings and strife, the 2015 AFCON tournament will kick off next Saturday. The build-up to the much anticipated competition was nothing short of controversial. Due to the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Western Africa, initial hosts Morocco tried in vain to have the tournament's dates modified.
The response? Well, as we all know, not only did CAF opt not to postpone the tournament, but also, expelled Morocco from the event entirely in retaliation for not agreeing to go ahead as planned. As a result, Equatorial Guinea, who made a surprise run to the quarter-finals in their first appearance back in 2012, will now be hosts.
Interestingly, though, they themselves had initially been kicked out during the qualifying rounds after being adjudged to have fielded players with false passports--and in some cases--false names.
Also of note will be the absence of reigning champions Nigeria, as the Super Eagles were dumped out of the tournament during the group stages in which was a turbulent time for the three-time AFCON winners.
The 15 other teams that will be featuring are: Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia, Algeria, Cape Verde, South Africa, Cameroon, Gabon, Guinea, Senegal, DR Congo, and Congo.
Where do they rank in Africa's top 20? Have a look at this table:
Moving outside of Africa, have a look at how some of the notable teams in each confederation fared.
CONCACAF's top 5: Costa Rica still riding high after their great World Cup last summer
Meanwhile, CONMEBOL saw no changes in South America's top five
No movement either among the top OFC teams
However, among AFC teams, Uzbekistan and the UAE saw their rankings improve
Have a look at the 5 in UEFA. Spain and England both fail to make it into this group
And finally, the top 20 sides in the world as of January 2015
