AFCON 2023: Top 6 Teams With the Longest Title Droughts in the Competition

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations kicks off in less than two weeks in Cote d'Ivoire.

Senegal are looking to defend the title they won in 2022, while other countries are hoping to end decades without an AFCON title.

AFCON is one of the hardest competitions to win, and some criticized the quality of the football being played at the tournament. However, the last five tournaments have been won by some of the continent's football giants.

Still, for most of them, winning it wasn't easy. Senegal, for instance, a World Cup quarter-finalist won their first tournament in 2022. Some talented countries have been waiting for decades to get their hands on the trophy.

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Sports Brief looks at some of the longest title droughts in the competition.

Longest AFCON title droughts

6. Ghana - 42 years

The Black Stars are one of the biggest underachievers in AFCON history. They always possess one of the most talented squads in Africa but just can't get over the line. They have won it four times and have finished second five times. Their last title, believe it or not, came in 1982, per FIFA.

The bad news for Ghanaian fans is Africa has some top teams that they need to get through to win AFCON again.

5. Morocco - 47 years

The Atlas Lions are one of the most consistent teams on the continent. However, their performances have not resulted in an AFCON title since 1976. They were the first African nation to reach the knockouts of the World Cup in 1986 and possessed some of the best talents on the continent over the years. They have produced the likes of Badou Zaki, Mustapha Bettache, Noureddine Naybet, Larbi Aherdane, Achraf Hakimi, and others.

The 2022 World Cup semi-finalists host the tournament in 2025, but they are favourites for the 2023 tournament set to kick off in a few days' time.

4. Sudan - 53 years

Sudan won their only title in 1970 with the help of their Golden Generation, led by the likes of Ali Gagarin and Nasr Eddin Abbas. The team nearly qualified for the 1970 World Cup and even reached the 1972 Munich Olympics, per BBC. However, the following years were less successful. Before reaching the 2008 tournament, they had failed to qualify for 32 years. They've fallen back in the last few years, and there's no sign of a revival.

3. Republic of Congo - 51 years

The 1970s was a great decade for Central African nations, and the Republic of Congo were at the forefront. They beat Mali in the final of the 1972 edition to win their one and only AFCON title. They failed to sustain that success in the following decades and have been overtaken by North and West African nations.

2. DR Congo - 55 years

Congo were a football giant in the 60s and 70s. Their first title came in 1968 when they beat four-time winners Ghana 1-0 in the final in Ethiopia. Their second and last title came in 1974 when they dispatched Zambia. 1974 remains their greatest year in football. They made it to the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, becoming the were the first sub-Saharan country to qualify for the World Cup.

Over the years, the influence diminished as West and North African countries began to assert their dominance.

1. Ethiopia - 61 years

Ethiopia were one of the four countries to send delegates to the Grand Hotel in Khartoum, Sudan, in 1957, to form the Confederation of African Football, per FIFA. Egypt, Sudan and South Africa were other countries to send delegates to the conference. Egypt beat Ethiopia to win the first-ever AFCON tournament. The East Africans got their hands on the title in 1962 after beating Egypt in a rematch of the 1957 final.

Since then, they've barely been a factor in AFCON tournaments. In fact, they failed to make an appearance between 1982 to 2013 (31 years). There's no indication that another trophy will be coming any time soon.

Teams with the most to prove at AFCON

Despite having some of the best African talent over the years, the North Africans have struggled to make a mark in Africa's biggest football tournament.

Ghana and Nigeria are the other teams that will be expected to go all the way since they have produced some of Africa's best players.