Portal:Football in Africa/Selected article/33
The African Nations Championship, (in French Championnat d'Afrique des Nations) known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship and commonly abbreviated as CHAN, is a biennial African association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 2009 and first announced on 11 September 2007. The participating nations must consist of players playing in their national league competitions.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo for short) and Morocco are the most successful teams in this tournament with two titles each, followed by Tunisia, Libya and incumbent champions Senegal with one each. The tournament began life in 2009 with 8 teams, which was doubled for the 2nd edition up until the 6th and is currently contested by 18 teams since the 2022 edition.
Since the 2014 edition, matches of every edition of this tournament from qualification to the final will be computed to calculate the forthcoming FIFA World Rankings following its conclusion, which CAF exclaimed at the time as "an important step for the competition's development". At the time, FIFA considers the tournament "friendly" since it is restricted to players from local leagues to participate. The tournament is held biennially and alternates with the Africa Cup of Nations.