1976 African Cup of Nations

1976 African Cup of Nations
1976 የአፍሪካ ዋንጫ
Tournament details
Host country	Ethiopia
Dates	29 February – 14 March
Teams	8
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Morocco (1st title)
Runners-up	Guinea
Third place	Nigeria
Fourth place	Egypt
Tournament statistics
Matches played	18
Goals scored	54 (3 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mamadou Aliou Keïta ; (4 goals)
Best player(s)	Ahmed Faras
	← 1974 1978 →

Last updated September 08, 2025

The 1976 African Cup of Nations was the tenth edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa (CAF). It was hosted by Ethiopia. The format of competition changed from 1974: the field of eight teams was still split into two groups of four, but a final stage was introduced with the top two finishers of each of the first stage groups. Morocco won its first championship by topping the final group. Guinea finished second.

Qualified teams

The 8 qualified teams are:

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament^[a]
Ethiopia	Hosts		7 (1957, 1959, 1962 , 1963, 1965, 1968 , 1970)
Zaire	Holders	14 March 1974	5 (1965, 1968 , 1970, 1972, 1974 )
Morocco	2nd round winners	13 July 1975	1 (1972)
Guinea	2nd round winners	17 July 1975	2 (1970, 1974)
Nigeria	2nd round winners	27 July 1975	1 (1963)
Egypt	2nd round winners	1 August 1975	6 ( 1957 , 1959 , 1962, 1963, 1970, 1974 )
Sudan	2nd round winners	15 August 1975	5 ( 1957 , 1959, 1963, 1970 , 1972)
Uganda	2nd round winners	15 August 1975	3 (1962, 1968, 1974)

Notes

↑ Bold indicates champion for that year, Italic indicates host.

Squads

Venues

Dire Dawa
Addis Ababa	Addis Ababa Dire Dawa
Addis Ababa Stadium
Capacity: 30,000

Dire Dawa Stadium
Capacity: 18,000

First round

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:

Goal difference in all group matches
Greater number of goals scored in all group matches
Drawing of lots

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Guinea	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	5	Advance to Final round
2	Egypt	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	4	Advance to Final round
3	Ethiopia (H)	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	3
4	Uganda	3	0	0	3	2	6	−4	0

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

29 February 1976

Ethiopia	2–0	Uganda
Sheferahu 2' Seyoum 83'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Attendance: 30,000

Referee: Abdelkader Aouissi (Algeria)

29 February 1976

Egypt	1–1	Guinea
Basri 43'		B. Sylla 44' (pen.)

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Attendance: 30,000

Referee: Youssou N'Diaye (Senegal)

3 March 1976

Egypt	2–1	Uganda
Abdou 26' Basri 32'		Obua 21'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Referee: Théophile Lawson-Hétchéli (Togo)

3 March 1976

Ethiopia	1–2	Guinea
Sheferahu 40'		N'Jo Léa 15' Petit Sory 85'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Referee: Saad Gamar (Libya)

5 March 1976

Guinea	2–1	Uganda
N'Jo Léa 2' Sylla 20'		Muguwa 85'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Referee: John Amenghor (Ghana)

5 March 1976

Ethiopia	1–1	Egypt
Ali 46'		Shehata 26'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Attendance: 25,000

Referee: Abdelkader Aouissi (Algeria)

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco	3	2	1	0	6	3	+3	5	Advance to Final round
2	Nigeria	3	2	0	1	6	5	+1	4	Advance to Final round
3	Sudan	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2
4	Zaire	3	0	1	2	3	6	−3	1

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

1 March 1976

Nigeria	4–2	Zaire
Mohammed 28', 44' Ojebode 37' (pen.) Usiyan 90'		Kabasu 51' Ekofa 58'

Dire Dawa Stadium, Dire Dawa

Referee: Hédi Seoudi (Tunisia)

1 March 1976

Morocco	2–2	Sudan
Chérif 1' Abouali 58'		Gagarin 9', 79' (pen.)

Dire Dawa Stadium, Dire Dawa

Referee: Gratian Matovu (Tanzania)

4 March 1976

Nigeria	1–0	Sudan
Usiyan 8'

Dire Dawa Stadium, Dire Dawa

Referee: Nyirenda Chayu (Zambia)

4 March 1976

Morocco	1–0	Zaire
Zahraoui 80'

Dire Dawa Stadium, Dire Dawa

Referee: Yousef Alghoul (Libya)

6 March 1976

Morocco	3–1	Nigeria
Faras 8' Tazi 19' Chebbak 81'		Ojebode 81'

Dire Dawa Stadium, Dire Dawa

Attendance: 4,000

Referee: Bernard Grah (Ivory Coast)

6 March 1976

Zaire	1–1	Sudan
Mulamba 41'		Gagarin 14'

Dire Dawa Stadium, Dire Dawa

Attendance: 4,000

Referee: Robert Foiret (Mauritius)

Final round

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	5	Champions
2	Guinea	3	1	2	0	6	4	+2	4
3	Nigeria	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	3
4	Egypt	3	0	0	3	5	9	−4	0

Source: ^{[ citation needed ]}

9 March 1976

Guinea	1–1	Nigeria
Camara 88'		Lawal 55'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Attendance: 10,000

Referee: Hédi Seoudi (Tunisia)

9 March 1976

Morocco	2–1	Egypt
Faras 23' Zahraoui 88'		Abou Rehab 34'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Attendance: 10,000

Referee: Yousef Alghoul (Libya)

11 March 1976

Morocco	2–1	Nigeria
Faras 82' Guezzar 87'		Mohammed 57'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Referee: Youssou N'Diaye (Senegal)

11 March 1976

Guinea	4–2	Egypt
N'Jo Léa 24', 65' Sultan 53' (o.g.) M. Sylla 62'		Abdou 33' El-Seyagui 86'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Attendance: 10,000

Referee: Théophile Lawson-Hétchéli (Togo)

14 March 1976

Nigeria	3–2	Egypt
Ilerika 35', 62' Lawal 82'		El Khatib 7' Khalil 86'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Attendance: 25,000

Referee: Bernard Grah (Ivory Coast)

14 March 1976

Guinea	1–1	Morocco
Souleymane 33'	Report	Baba 86'

Addis Ababa Stadium, Addis Ababa

Attendance: 30,000

Referee: Nyirenda Chayu (Zambia)

Goalscorers

There were 54 goals scored in 18 matches, for an average of 3 goals per match.

4 goals

Mamadou Aliou Keïta

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

CAF Team of the tournament

Goalkeeper

Mohammed Al-Hazaz

Defenders

Midfielders

Forwards

External links

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[1] Bold indicates champion for that year, Italic indicates host.

[a]

v t e Africa Cup of Nations
Editions	Sudan 1957 United Arab Republic 1959 Ethiopia 1962 Ghana 1963 Tunisia 1965 Ethiopia 1968 Sudan 1970 Cameroon 1972 Egypt 1974 Ethiopia 1976 Ghana 1978 Nigeria 1980 Libya 1982 Ivory Coast 1984 Egypt 1986 Morocco 1988 Algeria 1990 Senegal 1992 Tunisia 1994 South Africa 1996 Burkina Faso 1998 Ghana/Nigeria 2000 Mali 2002 Tunisia 2004 Egypt 2006 Ghana 2008 Angola 2010 Gabon/Equatorial Guinea 2012 South Africa 2013 Equatorial Guinea 2015 Gabon 2017 Egypt 2019 Cameroon 2021 Ivory Coast 2023 Morocco 2025 Kenya/Tanzania/Uganda 2027 TBD 2029
Qualification	1957 1959 1962 1963 1965 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025
Finals	1957 1959 1962 1963 1965 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025
Bids	2027 2029
Squads	1957 1959 1962 1963 1965 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023
Statistics	Finals Appearances Awards Records and statistics Hat-tricks
Miscellaneous	Balls Mascots Music Trophy
Notes The 2021 and 2023 tournaments were actually held in 2022 and 2024 respectively. There were no 1957 and 1959 qualifications as places were given by invitation only. The "finals" articles for 1959 and 1976 are about the decisive matches of final group stages. Football in Africaportal

1976 African Cup of Nations

Contents

Qualified teams

Squads

Venues

First round

Tiebreakers

Group A

Group B

Final round

Goalscorers

CAF Team of the tournament

External links