Abstract
Sports today has been described as a physical activity done by individuals either as one person or as a representative of an organization or a state as some form of recreation. Diplomacy in African Studies is the profession, skill or activity of managing international relations, usually by a country's representatives abroad. Diplomacy has contributed immensely to fostering democracies and building strong institutions. Sports diplomacy is the act of diplomacy and representation, carried out by a representative of the sports institution on behalf of and with the consent of the state. Sports diplomacy has been used and still continues to be used by African states to maintain diplomatic ties as sports is one aspect of human life that has gone beyond the discrimination of human colour, race, religion, status,etc and every other thing that causes discrimination and segregation among all humans.
Football in Africa started in the early 1860's by the Europeans who colonized Africans. The first recorded games played in South Africa was in 1862 between soldiers and civil servants and there were no established rules for the game. Football combined elements of rugby until October 26, 1863 where the rules of football was officially made. The first football association in Africa, the Pietermaritzburg association was established in 1860 and teams were created before 1900. By the 1930's, football had begun to be played around central Africa. The first national football governing body was created in 1882, the South African Football Association (SAFA) which was a whites-only association. It became the first member of FIFA in 1910 as the first African member. Football in Africa at the initial stages was done predominantly using traditional tricks since Africa then was mostly a superstitious continent. Different sorts of charms were used to ensure the opponent weakness and eventual victory of the team. There was also a lot of disorganization and child trafficking (usually with good football players) in African football. In the same 1990's, many talented football players began to migrate to Europe to play since football in Africa was governed by the whites. The fear of African leaders for the death of football in Africa led to the establishment of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The Confederation of African Football was established on the 8th of February, 1957 at the grand hotel in Khartoum, Sudan by the National football association of Egypt, South Africa and Sudan following formal discussions at the FIFA congress held on the 7th of June, 1957 at the Avenida hotel in Lisbon, Portugal few months after its establishment. The first duty of the Confederation was the creation of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) which was first held in 1957 between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. South Africa's national team was disqualified on the grounds that they could not provide a multiracial national team due to her prevalent apartheid policies at the time. Egypt was the winner of the inaugural tournament after defeating Ethiopia 4-0. As the number of teams that participated increased, qualification rounds became introduced in the tournament. There was the round-robin group stage followed by a single-elimination knockout stage which continues until a winner is gotten.
The African Cup of Nations has overtime awarded three trophies to the winners of each edition of the tournament. The first trophy was the Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem trophy named after the first CAF President which Ghana obtained the right to permanently hold after winning the tournament three times in 1978. The second trophy, the trophy of African Unity or African Union Cup was given to the Confederation by the supreme council for sports in Africa and had the map of Africa engraved on it. Cameroon obtained the right to permanently hold this trophy after winning the tournament three times in 2000. The third trophy was gold plated and was designed and made in Italy. Egypt obtained the right to permanently hold this trophy in 2010 but this time, Egypt was given a special full-size replica of the trophy as opposed to the usual occasions. Overtime the African Cup of Nations has recorded different feats by different nations. Even the global Guinness world records has been broken by different African players both male and female, bringing pride to Africa.
