I’m not sure how much you know about the African Cup starting from the fact that it kicks off this Sunday. For us, African Cup is a unfortunate interruption in our pursuit to our third league title in 4 seasons. For these African players and people, it means a lot more. Football is very important in Africa for it brings joy in an otherwise poverty-stricken continent. Let’s know more about this competition and we hope to track the tournament till its end, with some reasonable regularity.

BBC Sport has put up a special section for the African Cup of Nations. They’ve got the fixtures, the tables, the guide to the teams and also the pundit predictions. Let me try to give you a snap shot of the whole thing, just in case you don’t want the details.

This edition of the competition is conducted in Ghana. The defending champions of this competition which is held once in two years, are Egypt. After the qualifying rounds 16 teams are selected for participating in the finals. These 16 teams are split into 4 groups and top two teams from each group with qualify for the quarterfinals.

Group A consists of Ghana, Guinea, Morocco and Namibia. The favourites are the hosts Ghana. It should be a tough fight among the other three but Morocco seems more likely to go through. Group B consists of Benin, Ivory Coast, Mali and Nigeria, favourites being Ivory Coast and Nigeria. It should be Ivory Coast and Nigeria, otherwise this could be the upset of the tournament.

Group C consists of Cameroon, Egypt, Sudan and Zambia. This is more like group B. Cameroon and Egypt are supposed to have relatively easy route to the quarterfinals. Group D consists of Angola, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. This is the most balanced group of the competition. Virtually any two of these four teams might qualify and nothing is an upset here. I have a feeling that it could be South Africa and Tunisia.

The winners of group A will play runner-up of group B and vice versa. Apply the same logic for Group C and Group D. So it’s a pity that two Chelsea players won’t be playing against each other in the finals. Out of the 16 teams competing for this honour, 9 of them have won the trophy at least once, with Egypt (5 times), Ghana (4 times) and Cameroon (4 times) being the big guys.

Now on to the fixtures. There is at least one match every single day starting from Jan 20 until Jan 31 for the group league matches with quarterfinals on Feb 3/4, semi finals on Feb 6/7 and finals on Feb 10.

We’ll do our best to catch up with the results and standings of the ACN as much as possible. Here’s hoping Ghana wins the trophy!