The 2016 African Nations Championship, also known for short as the 2016 CHAN and for sponsorship purposes as the Orange African Nations Championship, was the 4th edition of the biennial African association football tournament organized by CAF featuring national teams consisting of players playing in their respective national leagues. It was held in Rwanda from 16 January to 7 February 2016.[1]
The defending championsLibya failed to qualify for this edition. It was the first edition which featured the semi-final stage consisting of the runners-up from all 4 groups and the last to be sponsored by Orange as French energy and petroleum giant Total was set to take over from the following edition onward.[2]
Qualification
Rwanda qualified automatically as hosts with the remaining spots being determined by the qualifying rounds which took place between June and October 2015.[3]
All teams consisted of a maximum of 23 players.[5]
Draw
The draw for this edition of the tournament took place on 15 November 2015, 72 hours earlier than planned, at 18:30 CAT (UTC+2), in Kigali.[6][7] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four.[8]
The teams were seeded based on their results in the previous 3 editions: 2009 (multiplied by 1), 2011 (multiplied by 2) and 2014 (multiplied by 3):[9]
7 points for winner
5 points for runner-up
3 points for semi-finalists
2 points for quarter-finalists
1 point for group stage
Based on the formula above, the four pots were allocated as follows:
The top two teams of each group advanced to the knockout stage.
Tiebreakers
The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:[5]
Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 apply;
In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time would be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner, except for the third place match where no extra time would be played.[5]
^Komugisha, Usher (17 February 2015). "CAF sets dates for CHAN 2016". SuperSport. Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
^"Total to sponsor CAF competitions for the next eight years". Africanews. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
^"CAF Full Calendar for 2016 CHAN". CAFOnline.com. 28 February 2015. Archived from the original on 14 February 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
^Oryada, Andrew (10 April 2014). "CAF approves four stadiums for 2016 CHAN". African Football. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
^ abc"Regulations of the African Nations Championship" (PDF). CAFOnline.com. 31 May 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
^"CHAN draw advanced on 15th November". CAFOnline.com. 1 November 2015. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
^"Decisions of CAF Executive Committee on 6 August 2015". CAFOnline.com. 9 August 2015. Archived from the original on 26 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017. The draw for the final tournament of the competition (2016 CHAN) will take place on 18 November 2015 in Kigali, Rwanda.
^"Tricky draw for host Rwanda". CAFOnline.com. 15 November 2015. Archived from the original on 10 September 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
^"Procedure for the final tournament draw". CAFOnline.com. 14 November 2015. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
^"CHAN 2016 – FINAL FIXTURES" (PDF). CAFOnline.com. 15 November 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
^"Orange CHAN 2016: Scorers chart". CAFOnline.com. 8 February 2016. Archived from the original on 8 September 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
^"CHAN 2016: Awards and Best XI for the tournament". Ghana SoccerNet. 8 February 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
^"Orange CHAN 2016: Statistics". CAFOnline.com. 9 February 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2016.