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Copa América

The CONMEBOL Copa América (America's Cup; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship ), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial football tournament contested among national teams from South America. It is the oldest still-running continental football competition. The competition determines the champions of South America. Since the 1990s, teams from North America and Asia have also been invited to compete.

Eight of the ten CONMEBOL national teams have won the tournament at least once in its 48 stagings since the event's inauguration in 1916, with Ecuador and Venezuela the only teams yet to win. Argentina have the most championships in the tournament's history, with 16 cups. The country that hosted the tournament the most times (nine editions) is Argentina, including the inaugural edition in 1916. The United States is the only non-CONMEBOL country that hosted the event, having done so in both 2016 and 2024. On three occasions (in 1975, 1979, and 1983), the tournament was held in multiple South American countries.

Since 1993, the tournament has generally featured 12 teams — all 10 CONMEBOL teams and two additional teams from other confederations. Mexico participated in every tournament between 1993 and 2016, with one additional team drawn from CONCACAF, except for 1999, when AFC team Japan filled out the 12-team roster, and 2019, which featured Japan and Qatar. The 2016 and 2024 tournaments both featured 16 teams, with six teams from CONCACAF in addition to the 10 from CONMEBOL.

Beginnings
The first football team in South America, Lima Cricket and Football Club, was established in Peru in 1859, and the Argentine Football Association was founded in 1893. By the early 20th century, football was growing in popularity, and the first international competition held among national teams of the continent occurred in 1910 when Argentina organized an event to commemorate the centenary of the May Revolution. Chile and Uruguay participated, but this event is not considered official by CONMEBOL. Similarly, for the centennial celebration of its independence, Argentina held a tournament between 2 and 17 July 1916 with Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil being the first participants of the tournament. This so-called Campeonato Sudamericano de Football would be the first edition of what is currently known as Copa América; Uruguay would triumph in this first edition after tying 0–0 with hosts Argentina in the deciding, last match held in Estadio Racing Club in Avellaneda.

Seeing the success of the tournament, a boardmember of the Uruguayan Football Association, Héctor Rivadavia, proposed the establishment of a confederation of the associations of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. On 9 July, independence day in Argentina, CONMEBOL was founded. The following year, the competition was played again, this time in Uruguay. Uruguay would win the title again to win their bicampeonato after defeating Argentina 1–0 in the last match of the tournament. The success of the tournament on Charrúan soil would help consolidate the tournament.

After a flu outbreak in Rio de Janeiro canceled the tournament in 1918, Brazil hosted the tournament in 1919 and was crowned champion for the first time after defeating the defending champions 1–0 in a playoff match to decide the title, while the Chilean city of Viña del Mar would host the 1920 event which was won by Uruguay.

For the 1921 event, Paraguay participated for the first time after its football association affiliated to CONMEBOL earlier that same year. Argentina won the competition for the first time thanks to the goals of Julio Libonatti. In subsequent years, Uruguay would dominate the tournament, which at that time was the largest football tournament in the world. Argentina, however, would not be far behind and disputed the supremacy with the Charruas. After losing the 1928 final at the 1928 Summer Olympics held in Amsterdam, Argentina would gain revenge in the 1929 South American Championship by defeating the Uruguayans in the last, decisive match. During this period, both Bolivia and Peru debuted in the tournament in 1926 and 1927, respectively.

Disorganization and intermittency
After the first World Cup held in Uruguay in 1930, the enmity between the football federations of Uruguay and Argentina prevented the competition from being played for a number of years. Only in 1935 was it possible to dispute a special edition of the event to be officially reinstated in 1939. Peru became the host nation of the 1939 edition and won the competition for the first time. Ecuador made their debut at that tournament.

In 1941, Chile hosted that year's edition in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Santiago for which the capacity of the newly built Estadio Nacional was expanded from 30,000 to 70,000 spectators. Despite the large investment and initial success of the team, the Chileans would be defeated in the last match by eventual champions Argentina. Uruguay hosted and won the 1942 edition. Chile would host again in 1945, and came close to playing for the title against Argentina. However, Brazil spoiled that possibility, and Argentina would win the tournament once again on Chilean soil.

The event then entered a period of great disruption. The championship was not played on a regular basis and many editions would be deemed unofficial, only to be considered valid later on by CONMEBOL. For example, Argentina would be the first (and so far only) team to win three consecutive titles by winning the championships of 1945, 1946 and 1947. After those three annual tournaments, the competition returned to being held every two years, then three and later four. There were even two tournaments held in 1959, one in Argentina and a second in Ecuador. During this period, some of the national teams were indifferent to the tournament. Some did not participate every year, others sent lesser teams; in the 1959 edition held in Ecuador, Brazil entered a team from the state of Pernambuco. Bolivia won for the first time when it hosted in 1963, but was defeated in the first game of the 1967 tournament by debutant Venezuela. The founding of the Copa Libertadores in 1959 also affected the way the tournament was viewed by its participants.

After eight years of absence, the event resumed in 1975 and officially acquired the name Copa América. The tournament had no fixed venue, and all matches were played throughout the year in each country. Nine teams participated in the group stages with the defending champions receiving a bye into the semifinals. The tournament was contested every four years using this system until 1987.

Renewal and host rotation
In 1986, CONMEBOL decided to return to having one country host the tournament and to contest it every other year. From 1987 until 2001, the event was hosted every two years in rotation by the ten members of the confederation. The format would remain constant with a first round of groups, but the final round stage ranged from being a new, final round-robin group or a single-elimination system to decide the winner. This renewal helped the tournament, which began to receive television coverage in Europe and North America. The 1987 Copa América was held in Argentina; this was the first time the nation had hosted an edition in 28 years. Despite entering as heavy favorites for being the reigning world champions (having won the 1986 FIFA World Cup), playing at home and having a team largely composed of its World Cup winners led by the legendary Diego Maradona, Argentina would finish in a disappointing fourth place after being beaten by defending champions Uruguay 0–1 in the semifinals. Uruguay would defeat a surprisingly strong Chilean squad who made it to the final, disposing of the powerful Brazil 4–0 on the group stage.

Brazil lifted its first official international title since the 1970 FIFA World Cup upon winning the 1989 Copa América held on home soil. Argentina, in turn, won the Copa América after 32 long years in 1991 in Chile, thanks to a refreshed squad led by the prolific goalscorer Gabriel Batistuta. The 1993 Copa América tournament in Ecuador would take its current form. Along with the usual ten teams, CONMEBOL invited two countries from CONCACAF to participate, Mexico and the United States.

Uruguay managed to win the competition in 1995 as host, ending a period of decline for Uruguayan football. With the implementation of rotating hosts, Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela hosted the tournament for the first time. Brazil entered a series of victories, winning four of the five continental titles between 1997 and 2007. The first, in 1997, was won after defeating host nation Bolivia 1–3 with goals from Leonardo, Denílson and Ronaldo becoming crucial in the Verde-Amarela's consagration on Bolivia's altitude. Brazil would successfully defend the title in 1999 after thumping Uruguay 3–0 in Asuncion, Paraguay. However, the 2001 Copa América saw one of the biggest surprises of the history of the sport as Honduras eliminated Brazil in the quarterfinals. Colombia, the host nation, would go on to win the competition for the first time ever.

From 2001 to 2007, the tournament was contested every three years, and from 2007 forward every four years, with the exception of the tournament's centennial in 2016.

Running from an embarrassing performance in 2001, Brazil reestablished itself in the South American pantheon after defeating Argentina, on penalties, in order to win the 2004 competition held in Peru. Three years later, the two teams met again in the final, this time in Venezuela. Once again, Brazil came out victorious after crushing Argentina 3–0.

Argentina hosted the 2011 competition and was ousted by Uruguay in the quarterfinals by penalty shootout. Uruguay would go on defeating Peru 2–0 in the semis to reach the finals and overpower Paraguay 3–0, thus winning the trophy on Argentinean soil for the third time and second in a row. This, the 43rd edition, was the first time that neither Argentina nor Brazil reached the semifinals of a tournament they both had entered.

The 2015 competition was hosted in Chile, who swapped hosting positions with Brazil in light of the latter's hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Chile went on to win the tournament, their first title, on home soil.

Centenary and beyond
In 2016, the centenary of the tournament was celebrated with the Copa América Centenario tournament hosted in the United States; the tournament was the first to be hosted outside of South America and had an expanded field of 16 teams from CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. During the tournament, media outlets reported that CONMEBOL and CONCACAF were negotiating a merger of the Copa América with the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the latter's continental tournament held every two years, with the United States hosting regular tournaments; United States Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati called the report inaccurate, saying that no such discussion had taken place and that a new tournament would have to be established. For the second time, Chile won the trophy in a penalty shoot-out. The 2016 edition broke tournament records for attendance, with 1.5 million total spectators and an average of 46,000 per match through the semi-finals.

Brazil hosted the 2019 edition, which was played in the normal four-year cycle, and won their ninth title by defeating Peru in the final at the renovated Maracanã Stadium. CONMEBOL approved a permanent switch from odd to even years beginning with the 2020 Copa América to move in line with the UEFA European Championship, which would be jointly hosted by Argentina and Colombia and split into two groups. The tournament was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lost two invited teams from Asia—Australia and Qatar—due to fixture congestion. Colombia requested that the tournament be moved to November 2021 due to widespread protests and increased COVID-19 cases, but withdrew after CONMEBOL rejected a second postponement. 13 days prior to the opening match, the entire tournament was moved to Brazil due to a rise in COVID-19 cases in Argentina. The 2021 Copa América was played by 10 teams with no spectators at most matches due to the pandemic; the final at the Maracanã was limited to 10 percent of capacity. Argentina won their first title in 28 years by defeating Brazil in the final.

CONMEBOL and CONCACAF signed a collaborative partnership agreement in January 2023 that included the United States being selected as host for the 2024 Copa América, which would feature six CONCACAF teams. The tournament would share some venues with the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is planned to be co-hosted by the United States.

Hosts
In 1984, CONMEBOL adopted the policy of rotating the right to host the Copa América amongst the ten member confederations. The first rotation was completed following the 2007 Copa América which took place in Venezuela. A second rotation commenced in 2011, with host countries rotating in alphabetical order, starting with Argentina. Chile, Mexico and the United States expressed interest in hosting the next tournament, but the CONMEBOL Executive Committee decided to continue the execution of the rotation, giving priority of the organization to each of its member associations; each association confirms whether they will host an edition or not, having no obligation to do so. Argentina confirmed on 24 November 2008, via representatives of the Argentine Football Association, that it would host the 2011 Copa América.

The 2015 Copa América was due to be held in Brazil following the order of rotation. However, as Brazil was hosting both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, the decision was reconsidered. Although CONMEBOL President Nicolas Leoz proposed hosting the continental tournament in Mexico (a member of the CONCACAF federation) and board members Brazil and Chile discussed the possibility of exchanging the 2015 and 2019 tournaments, it was decided and confirmed by the CBF in February 2011 that the 2015 Copa América would remain in Brazil. However, in March 2012, CBF president Ricardo Teixeira resigned from his position and the CBF agreed to swap the tournament's hosting with Chile. The swap was made official in May 2012. The centennial edition of the tournament, Copa América Centenario, took place in June 2016, and was held in the United States. The Copa América Centenario marked the first time the tournament was hosted by a non-CONMEBOL nation.

Each Copa América since 2005 has had its own mascot. Gardelito, the mascot for the 1987 competition, was the first Copa América mascot.

 * C = non-CONMEBOL host.

Format and rules
In early tournaments all teams competed in a round-robin stage, while later ones saw the teams were split into different groups followed by a single-elimination knockout stage.

 * Notes

The tournament was previously known as Campeonato Sudamericano de Futbol (South American Championship of Football). South American Championship of Nations was the official English language name. The current name has been used since 1975. Up to 1967 if there was a tie of points at the top of the standings, a playoff match (or matches) would be held to determine the champion. Between 1975 and 1983 it had no fixed host nation, and was held in a home and away fashion. The current final tournament features 12 national teams competing over a month in the host nation. There are two phases: the group stage followed by the knockout stage. In the group stage, teams compete within three groups of four teams each. Three teams are seeded, including the hosts, with the other seeded teams selected using a formula based on the FIFA World Rankings. The other teams are assigned to different "pots", usually based also on the FIFA Rankings, and teams in each pot are drawn at random to the three groups.

Each group plays a round-robin tournament, in which each team is scheduled for three matches against other teams in the same group. In earlier tournaments, the last round of matches of each group were not scheduled at the same time unlike many tournaments around the world for unknown reasons, although more recent tournaments have adopted this rule. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Beginning in 1995, three points have been awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss (before, winners received two points).

The ranking of each team in each group is determined as follows:
 * a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;
 * b) goal difference in all group matches;
 * c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.

If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows:
 * d) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
 * e) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
 * f) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned;
 * g) drawing of lots by the CONMEBOL Organizing Committee (i.e. at random).

The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if a match is still tied after 90 minutes in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and after extra time in the final. It begins with the quarter-finals, then semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final.

Participating teams
All registered national federations of CONMEBOL, of which there currently are ten, are eligible for automatic berths in the tournament. Since the competition's rebranding in 1975, there has been only one occasion when one of those teams missed out on a tournament: Argentina withdrew from the 2001 edition due to scheduling and security disagreements.

Owing to this somewhat limited number of available participants, countries from other continents have usually been invited to make up the 12 teams necessary for the current tournament format since 1993. Most often those have been from CONCACAF, whose members are geographically and culturally close. For the centennial edition in 2016 and for the one in 2024, reflecting the number of teams being increased to 16, qualification stages were held for the CONCACAF teams.

In all, ten non-South American nations have participated in Copa América at least once: CONCACAF members Canada, Costa Rica, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, and the United States, as well as AFC members Japan and Qatar. Two other teams, China and Australia, had accepted invitations respectively for 2015 and 2021, but both did not end up appearing because of clashes with other commitments. Moreover, Spain was invited to the 2011 edition but declined to participate.

Team records

 * Regular participants

 * Invitees

Trophies
The Copa América trophy, which is awarded to the winners of the tournament, was donated to the Association by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Ernesto Bosch, in 1910, when Argentina organized an event to commemorate the centenary of the May Revolution. That competition (also attended by Uruguay and Chile) was named "Copa del Centenario" (Centennial Cup).

The current Copa América trophy was purchased in 1916 from "Casa Escasany", a jewelry shop in Buenos Aires, at the cost of 3,000 Swiss francs.

The Copa América trophy is a 9 kg weight and 77 cm tall silver ornament, with a 3-level wooden base which contains several plaques. The plaques are engraved with every winner of the competition, as well as the edition won. The trophy previously had a one- and two-level base, and prior to 1979 there was no base at all, like the one used in 1975.

In April 2016, a commemorative trophy – specifically designed for the Copa América Centenario – was introduced at the Colombian Football Federation headquarters of Bogotá to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the competition. The trophy was based on the original Copa América trophy's shape, added with the 2016 edition logo. The trophy was not to have a base. The CAC was 61 cm tall with a weight of 7.1 kg, covered by 24-carat gold. The emblems of CONMEBOL and CONCACAF were also engraved on its body.

The commemorative Copa América Centenario trophy was designed by Epico Studios in the United States and manufactured by London Workshops of Thomas Lyte in England. The winning team will keep the trophy in perpetuity.

Apart from the main trophy, the "Copa Bolivia" (a small trophy made in silver) has been awarded to the runner-up of the competition since the 1997 edition. The trophy is named after the country that hosted the 1997 Copa América, with a small Bolivian flag attached on one of its sides.

Summary

 * * Host nation

Awards
There are currently five post-tournament awards
 * the Best Player for most valuable player, first awarded in 1987;
 * the Top Goalscorer for most prolific goal scorer;
 * the Best Goalkeeper  for most outstanding goalkeeper, first awarded in 2011;
 * the Team of the Tournament for best combined team of players at the tournament;
 * the Fair Play Award for the team with the best record of fair play, first awarded in 2011.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Copa América


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Cispius

Cispius is the nomen of the Roman gens Cispia.

Cispius Laevus
The Mons Cispius, or Cispian Hill, is one of several summits of the Esquiline Hill in Rome. The grammarian Festus says that it was named for a Cispius Laevus of Anagnia, of the Publilia voting tribe (tribus). This Cispius may be legendary.

M. Cispius
Marcus Cispius was a tribune of the plebs in 57 BC, and was among those tribunes who actively supported Cicero in his efforts to overturn the legislation that brought about his exile. Earlier, however, Cicero had brought a civil suit in which he spoke against Cispius, his brother, and their father. Sometime after Cispius's tribunate, most likely in early 56, he was defended by Cicero on a charge of electoral corruption (ambitus) and convicted. Cicero calls him "a man of character and principle." The two men maintained their friendship in the 50s; in 55, Cicero wrote a letter of recommendation to the proconsul of Africa, Q. Valerius Orca, on behalf of men associated with Cispius. Cispius may have been a praetor sometime after 54.

L. Cispius (Laevus)
Lucius Cispius, probably with the cognomen Laevus, was a commander of the fleet (praefectus classis) in 46 BC, serving under Julius Caesar. He took part in the blockade of Thapsus. Cispius was not of senatorial rank, and has been tentatively linked to a pottery manufacturing family in Arretium. It is possible that he was the son of Marcus Cispius (above), though this filiation would place them on opposite sides in the civil war. In 43, a Cispius Laevus was a legate of Munatius Plancus, carrying dispatches to Rome for him; this man was most likely Caesar's naval commander.

title: Cispius


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Talk:Seaview (Galloway, New Jersey)

Is this about the Seaview Marriott Pines Golf Course? -- Oliver P. 16:28 21 Jun 2003 (UTC)

The LPA is no longer hosted at seveiw.

title: Talk:Seaview (Galloway, New Jersey)


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John Clare

John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th century; he is now often seen as a major 19th-century poet. His biographer Jonathan Bate called Clare "the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced. No one has ever written more powerfully of nature, of a rural childhood, and of the alienated and unstable self."

Early life
Clare was born in Helpston, 6 mi to the north of the city of Peterborough. In his lifetime, the village was in the Soke of Peterborough in Northamptonshire and his memorial calls him "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet". Helpston is now part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority.

Clare became an agricultural labourer while still a child, but attended school in Glinton church until he was 12. In his early adult years, Clare became a potboy in The Blue Bell public house and fell in love with Mary Joyce, but her father, a prosperous farmer, forbade them to meet. Later, Clare was a gardener at Burghley House. He enlisted in the militia, tried camp life with Gypsies, and worked in Pickworth, Rutland, as a lime burner in 1817. In the following year, he was obliged to accept parish relief. Malnutrition stemming from childhood may have been the main factor behind his 5 ft stature and contributed to his poor physical health in later life.

Early poems
Clare had bought a copy of James Thomson's The Seasons and began to write poems and sonnets. In an attempt to hold off his parents' eviction from their home, Clare offered his poems to a local bookseller, Edward Drury, who sent them to his cousin, John Taylor of the Taylor & Hessey firm, which had published the work of John Keats. Taylor published Clare's Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery in 1820. The book was highly praised and the next year his Village Minstrel and Other Poems appeared. "There was no limit to the applause bestowed upon Clare, unanimous in their admiration of a poetical genius coming before them in the humble garb of a farm labourer."

Middle life
On 16 March 1820, Clare married Martha ("Patty") Turner, a milkmaid, in the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Great Casterton. An annuity of 15 guineas from the Marquess of Exeter, in whose service he had been, was supplemented by subscription, so that Clare gained £45 a year, a sum far beyond what he had ever earned. Soon, however, his income became insufficient and in 1823 he was nearly penniless. The Shepherd's Calendar (1827) met with little success, which was not increased by his hawking it himself. As he worked again in the fields, his health temporarily improved; but he soon became seriously ill. Earl Fitzwilliam presented him with a new cottage and a piece of ground, but Clare could not settle down.

Clare was constantly torn between the two worlds of literary London and his often illiterate neighbours, between a need to write poetry and a need for money to feed and clothe his children. His health began to suffer and he had bouts of depression, which worsened after his sixth child was born in 1830 and as his poetry sold less well. In 1832, his friends and London patrons clubbed together to move the family to a larger cottage with a smallholding in the village of Northborough, not far from Helpston. However, he only felt more alienated there.

Clare's last work, the Rural Muse (1835), was noticed favourably by Christopher North and other reviewers, but its sales were not enough to support his wife and seven children. Clare's mental health began to worsen. His alcohol consumption steadily increased along with dissatisfaction with his own identity and more erratic behaviour. A notable instance was his interruption of a performance of The Merchant of Venice, in which Clare verbally assaulted Shylock. He was becoming a burden to Patty and his family, and in July 1837, on the recommendation of his publishing friend, John Taylor, Clare went of his own volition (accompanied by a friend of Taylor's) to Dr Matthew Allen's private asylum High Beach near Loughton, in Epping Forest. Taylor had assured Clare that he would receive the best medical care.

Clare was reported as being "full of many strange delusions". He believed himself to be a prize fighter and that he had two wives, Patty and Mary. He started to claim he was Lord Byron. Allen wrote about Clare to The Times in 1840: "It is most singular that ever since he came... the moment he gets pen or pencil in hand he begins to write most poetical effusions. Yet he has never been able to obtain in conversation, nor even in writing prose, the appearance of sanity for two minutes or two lines together, and yet there is no indication of insanity in any of his poetry."

Religion
Clare was an Anglican. Whatever he may have felt about liturgy and ministry, and however critical an eye he may have cast on parish life, Clare retained and replicated his father's loyalty to the Church of England. He dodged services in his youth and dawdled in the fields during the hours of worship, but he derived much help in later years from members of the clergy. He acknowledged that his father "was brought up in the communion of the Church of England, and I have found no cause to withdraw myself from it." If he found aspects of the established church uncongenial and awkward, he remained prepared to defend it: "Still I reverence the church and do from my soul as much as anyone curse the hand that's lifted to undermine its constitution."

Much of Clare's imagery was drawn from the Old Testament (e.g. "The Peasant Poet"). However, Clare also honours the figure of Christ in poems such as "The Stranger".

Later life
During his early asylum years in High Beach, Essex (1837–1841), Clare re-wrote poems and sonnets by Lord Byron. Child Harold, his version of Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, became a lament for past lost love, and Don Juan, A Poem an acerbic, misogynistic, sexualised rant redolent of an ageing dandy. Clare also took credit for Shakespeare's plays, claiming to be him. "I'm John Clare now," the poet told a newspaper editor, "I was Byron and Shakespeare formerly."

In July 1841, Clare absconded from the asylum in Essex and walked some 80 mi home, believing he was to meet his first love Mary Joyce, to whom he was convinced he was married. He did not believe her family when they told him she had died accidentally three years earlier in a house fire. He remained free, mostly at home in Northborough, for the five months following, but eventually Patty called the doctors.

Between Christmas and New Year, 1841, Clare was committed to Northampton General Lunatic Asylum (now St Andrew's Hospital). On his arrival at the asylum, the accompanying doctor, Fenwick Skrimshire, having treated Clare since 1820, completed the admission papers. Asked, "Was the insanity preceded by any severe or long-continued mental emotion or exertion?" Skrimshire entered: "After years of poetical prosing."

His maintenance at the asylum was paid for by Earl Fitzwilliam, "but at the ordinary rate for poor people". He remained there for the rest of his life under the humane regime of Thomas Octavius Prichard, who encouraged and helped him to write. Here he wrote possibly his most famous poem, "I Am". It was in this later poetry that Clare "developed a very distinctive voice, an unmistakable intensity and vibrance, such as the later pictures of Van Gogh" possessed.

John Clare died of a stroke on 20 May 1864, in his 71st year. His remains were returned to Helpston for burial in St Botolph's churchyard, where he had expressed a wish to be buried.

Remembrance
On Clare's birthday, children at the John Clare School, Helpston's primary, parade through the village and place their "midsummer cushions" around his gravestone, which bears the inscriptions "To the Memory of John Clare The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" and "A Poet is Born not Made".

Poetry
In his time, Clare was commonly known as "the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet". His formal education was brief, his other employment and class origins lowly. Clare resisted the use of the increasingly standardised English grammar and orthography in his poetry and prose, alluding to political reasoning in comparing "grammar" (in a wider sense of orthography) to tyrannical government and slavery, personifying it in jocular fashion as a "bitch". He wrote in Northamptonshire dialect, introducing local words to the literary canon such as "pooty" (snail), "lady-cow" (ladybird), "crizzle" (to crisp) and "throstle" (song thrush).

In early life, he struggled to find a place for his poetry in the changing literary fashions of the day. He also felt that he did not belong with other peasants. As Clare once wrote:"'I live here among the ignorant like a lost man in fact like one whom the rest seemes careless of having anything to do with—they hardly dare talk in my company for fear I should mention them in my writings and I find more pleasure in wandering the fields than in musing among my silent neighbours who are insensible to everything but toiling and talking of it and that to no purpose.'"

It is common to see an absence of punctuation in Clare's original writings, although many publishers felt the need to remedy this in most of his work. Clare argued with his editors about how it should be presented to the public.

Clare grew up in a time of massive changes in town and countryside as the Industrial Revolution swept Europe. Many former agricultural and craft workers, including children, moved from the countryside to crowded cities, as factory work mechanized. The Agricultural Revolution saw pastures ploughed up, trees and hedges uprooted, fens drained and commons enclosed. This destruction of an ancient way of life distressed Clare. His political and social views were mainly conservative. ("I am as far as my politics reaches 'King and Country' – no Innovations in Religion and Government say I.") He refused even to complain of the subordinate position to which English society had placed him, swearing that "with the old dish that was served to my forefathers I am content."

His early work expresses delight in nature and the cycle of the rural year. Poems such as "Winter Evening", "Haymaking" and "Wood Pictures in Summer" mark the beauty of the world and the certainties of rural life, where animals must be fed and crops harvested. Poems such as "Little Trotty Wagtail" show his sharp observation of wildlife, though "The Badger" shows a lack of sentiment about the place of animals in the countryside. At this time he often used poetic forms such as the sonnet and the rhyming couplet. His later poetry tends to be more meditative and use forms similar to the folk songs and ballads of his youth. An example of this is "Evening".

Clare's knowledge of the natural world went far beyond that of the major Romantic poets. However, poems such as "I Am" show a metaphysical depth parallel with his contemporary poets and many of his pre-asylum poems deal with intricate play on the nature of linguistics. His "bird's nest poems", it can be argued, display the self-awareness and obsession with the creative process that captivated the romantics. Clare was the most influential poet, apart from Wordsworth, to prefer an older style.

In a foreword to the 2011 anthology The Poetry of Birds, the broadcaster and bird-watcher Tim Dee notes that Clare wrote about 147 species of British wild birds "without any technical kit whatsoever".

Essays
The only Clare essay to appear in his lifetime was "Popularity of Authorship", which described anonymously his predicament in 1824. Other essays by Clare to appear posthumously were "Essays on Landscape", "Essays on Criticism and Fashion", "Recollections on a Journey from Essex", "Excursions with an Angler", "For Essay on Modesty and Mock Morals", "For Essay on Industry", "Keats", "Byron", "The Dream", "House or Window Flies" and "Dewdrops".

Revived interest
Clare was relatively forgotten in the later 19th century, but interest in his work was revived by Arthur Symons in 1908, Edmund Blunden in 1920 and John and Anne Tibble in their ground-breaking 1935 two-volume edition, while in 1949 Geoffrey Grigson edited Poems of John Clare's Madness (published by Routledge and Kegan Paul). Benjamin Britten set some of "May" from A Shepherd's Calendar in his Spring Symphony of 1948 and included a setting of The Evening Primrose in his Five Flower Songs.

Copyright on much of his work was claimed after 1965 by Professor Eric Robinson, the editor of the Complete Poetry, but this has been contested. Some publishers such as Faber and Carcanet Press refused to acknowledge it. Robinson died in 2019 and neither his widow nor his literary agent maintain his claim to own the copyright.

The largest collection of original Clare manuscripts is held at Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, where items are available to view by appointment. Other Clare papers are in public libraries in Northampton and New York.

Altering what Clare actually wrote continued into the later 20th century. Helen Gardner, for instance, amended both the punctuation and the spelling and grammar when editing the New Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1950 (1972).

Since 1993, the John Clare Society of North America has organised an annual session of scholarly papers concerning John Clare at the annual Convention of the Modern Language Association of America. In 2003 the scholar Jonathan Bate published the first major critical biography of Clare, which helped to keep up the revival in popular and academic interest.

John Clare Cottage
The thatched cottage where Clare was born was bought by the John Clare Trust in 2005. In May 2007, the Trust gained £1.27 million of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and commissioned Jefferson Sheard Architects to create a new landscape design and visitor centre, including a cafe, shop and exhibition area. The cottage at 12 Woodgate, Helpston, has been restored using traditional building methods and is open to the public. In 2013, the John Clare Trust received a further grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help preserve the building and provide educational activities for youngsters visiting it.

Works

 * Autumn
 * First Love
 * Nightwind
 * Snow Storm.
 * The Firetail.
 * The Badger – Date unknown
 * The Lament of Swordy Well
 * Sunday Dip.

Poetry collections
In chronological order:
 * Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery. London, 1820
 * The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems. London, 1821
 * The Shepherd's Calendar with Village Stories and Other Poems. London, 1827
 * The Rural Muse. London, 1835
 * Sonnet. London 1841
 * Poems by John Clare. Arthur Symons (Ed.) London, 1908
 * The Poems of John Clare - In two volumes. London, 1935
 * Selected Poems London, 1997

Works about Clare
In chronological order:
 * Frederick Martin, The Life of John Clare, 1865
 * J. L. Cherry, Life and Remains of John Clare, 1873
 * Norman Gale, Clare's Poems, 1901
 * J. W. and Anne Tibble, John Clare - A Life, Oxford University Press, 1932.
 * June Wilson, Green Shadows: The Life of John Clare, 1951
 * John Barrell, The Idea of Landscape and the Sense of Place, 1730–1840: An Approach to the Poetry of John Clare, Cambridge University Press, 1972
 * Edward Bond, The Fool, 1975
 * Greg Crossan, A Relish for Eternity: The Process of Divinization in the Poetry of John Clare, 1976, ISBN 978-0773406162
 * H. O. Dendurent, John Clare: A Reference Guide, Boston: G. K. Hall, 1978
 * Edward Storey, A Right to Song: The Life of John Clare, London: Methuen, 1982, ISBN 0-413-39940-0
 * Timothy Brownlow, John Clare and Picturesque Landscape, 1983
 * John MacKenna, Clare: a novel, Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 1993, ISBN 0-85640-467-5 (fictional biography)
 * Hugh Haughton, Adam Phillips and Geoffrey Summerfield, John Clare in Context, Cambridge University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-521-44547-7
 * Alan Moore, Voice of the Fire (Chapter 10 only), UK: Victor Gollancz
 * John Goodridge and Simon Kovesi (eds), John Clare: New Approaches, John Clare Society, 2000
 * Arnold Clay, Itching After Rhyme: A Life of John Clare, Parapress Ltd., 2000
 * Jonathan Bate, John Clare, London: Picador, 2003
 * Alan B. Vardy, John Clare, Politics and Poetry, London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003
 * Iain Sinclair, Edge of The Orison: In the Traces of John Clare's "Journey Out of Essex", Hamish Hamilton, 2005
 * John MacKay, Inscription and Modernity: From Wordsworth to Mandelstam, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-253-34749-1.
 * David Powell, First Publications of John Clare's Poems, John Clare Society of North America, 2009
 * Carry Akroyd, "Natures Powers & Spells": Landscape Change, John Clare and Me, Langford Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-904078-35-7
 * Judith Allnatt, The Poet's Wife, Doubleday, 2010 (fiction), ISBN 0-385-61332-6
 * Adam Foulds, The Quickening Maze, Jonathan Cape, 2009
 * D. C. Moore, Town (Play)
 * Sarah Houghton-Walker, John Clare's Religion, Routledge, 2016, ISBN 978-0-754665-14-4
 * Adam White, John Clare's Romanticism, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017
 * Simon Kövesi, John Clare: Nature, Criticism and History, London: Palgrave, 2017, ISBN 978-0-230-27787-8
 * Simon Kövesi, John Clare: Nature, Criticism and History, London: Palgrave, 2017, ISBN 978-0-230-27787-8

John Clare and music
Clare's father was, according to Clare, a 'noted singer', and Clare himself played the fiddle and collected folk songs and tunes. Regarding his fiddle playing ability, he described himself as "a decent scraper", and collected over two-hundred folk tunes in two books, the ''Northampton Manuscripts Nos. 12 and 13''.

As well as collecting folk tunes, Clare also collected many folk songs which are recorded in the Northampton Manuscript No. 18, and the Peterborough Manuscripts B4 and B7. According to George Deacon, the Northampton Manuscript No. 18 contains "more polished and refined versions" of songs which were originally written up in a rougher form in the two Peterborough Manuscripts, B4 and B7. Deacon's research led him to view the two Peterborough manuscripts as more authentic, inasmuch as they showed, "less conscious interference from the poet in Clare" than the versions of the songs in the Northampton manuscript.

Since Clare's death, many of his poems have been set to music by classical composers, and, more recently, by contemporary singer/songwriters working in the acoustic and folk genres. However, at least one of Clare's poems was set to music in his lifetime, although Clare arrived in London too late to attend the performance. According to Professor Simon Kövesi, "The Meeting ... [was] Clare's first poem to be set to music and performed on stage. The performance by singer Madame Vestris was at Drury Lane Theatre on 19 February 1820; the song was threaded into the pasticcio opera The Siege of Belgrade. Clare just missed the show, arriving in London for his first visit to the capital a short while after. Clare wrote that 'on the night we got into London it was announcd in the Play Bills that a song of mine was to be sung at Covent Garden by Madam Vestris and we was to have gone but it was too late. I felt uncommonly pleasd at the circumstance'."

Songs and tunes collected by Clare in the Northampton Catalogue
The Catalogue of the John Clare Collection in the Northampton Public Library with Indexes to the Poems in Manuscript was compiled by David Powell and published by the County Borough of Northampton, Public Libraries, Museums and Art Gallery Committee in 1964. Included in the catalogue are the two books of folk tunes (MSS 12 & 13) and the book of folk songs (MSS 18).

John Clare, Northampton Manuscript No. 12
Catalogue entry reads:

"A small oblong music book of song and dance tunes, inscribed on p.1 'John Clare / Helpstone / 1818' and entitled on p.3 A Collection / of Songs / Airs and Dances / For the Violin.

3¾" × 6¼", 82 pp., red quarter-leather with marbled boards.

Contents consist of eighty-eight titles, but the tunes are without words and directions. The titles are noted down in Clare's hand. This is No. 109 in the Peterborough Centenary Catalogue."

John Clare, Northampton Manuscript No. 13
Catalogue entry reads:

"An oblong music book of song and dance tunes. Undated.

5¾″ × 9½″, 56 pp., blue paper covers.

Contents consist of 180 titles. Directions for some of the country dances are given in abbreviated form, but the only words given are those for Black Ey'd Susan and Dibdin's The Sailors Journal. The titles are noted down in Clare's hand. A few fragmentary lines of verse are scribbled inside the back cover. This is No. 108 in the Peterborough Centenary Catalogue."

John Clare, Northampton Manuscript No.18
Catalogue entry reads:

"A small oblong notebook, entitled Old Songs & Ballads, which Clare was using in 1827–8.

4″ × 6¼″, 34 pp. (+146 blank), worn brown half-calf with marbled boards.

The introduction begins: 'I commenced sometime ago with an intention of making a collection of old Ballads...', and contents include John Randall, The Maidens Welcome, The False Knights Tradegy, Loves Riddles, Banks of Ivory, etc. There is an additional poem, Round Oak, in pencil and several of the blank pages at the end contain traces of pencil writing which has been erased. This is No. 98 in the Peterborough Centenary Catalogue."

Recordings of songs and tunes collected by Clare
in chronological order:
 * George Deacon, Dream Not of Love: 17 Songs from John Clare, album, 2002
 * Decent Scrapers, The John Clare Project: music from the John Clare manuscripts, album, 2015
 * Becky Dellow plays numerous tunes collected by Clare in: Becky Dellow & Adam Horovitz, The Thunder Mutters, podcast (episodes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9–13, 15–17), 2020–2021

Musical settings of Clare's poems
in chronological order:

 * Benjamin Britten, "The Evening Primrose", song, from Five Flower Songs, choral composition for SATB, 1950
 * Malcolm Arnold, John Clare Cantata, for SATB and piano duet, 1955
 * Trevor Hold, Three Songs of the Countryside, for two equal voices and piano to poems by "BB", John Clare and the composer, 1962
 * Trevor Hold, For John Clare, for tenor and instrumental ensemble, 1964
 * Richard Rodney Bennett, "The Insect World" & "Clock-a-clay", from The Insect World'', song cycle for unison voices and piano, 1966
 * Richard Rodney Bennett, "The Bird's Lament" & "The Early Nightingale", from The Aviary, song cycle for unison voices and piano, 1966
 * Trevor Hold, Gathered from the Field, Seven songs for tenor and piano to poems by John Clare, 1975
 * Michael Hurd, The Shepherd's Calendar, choral symphony for baritone solo, SATB chorus and orchestra, 1975
 * Terence Greaves, Three Rustic Poems Of John Clare, for soprano voice and clarinet in A, 1976
 * Royston Wood & Heather Wood, "The Cellar Door", song, from the album No Relation, 1977
 * Kevin Coyne, "I am", song, from the album Dynamite Daze, 1978
 * Trevor Hold, A John Clare Songbook, Nine songs for high voice and piano to poems by John Clare, 1980
 * Judith Bingham, "A Winter Scene" from A Cold Spell – 5 Carols for Winter, for SSAATTBB unaccompanied choir, 1987
 * Vikki Clayton, Midsummer Cushion, album (tracks 1–3, 5–9), 1991
 * Trevor Hold, A Little Songbook for John Clare. Five songs for soprano and piano to poems by John Clare, 1993
 * Gordon Tyrrall, A Distance from the Town: A musical appreciation of the work of the poet John Clare, album (tracks 1, 3–4, 6–7, 9–10, 12–13, 17, 19–20), 1998
 * John Wright, "Song (Heaven to Be Near Thee)", song, from the album A Few Short Lines, 1999
 * Terence Deadman, Eight Song Settings from the Poems of John Clare, compositions for tenor and piano, 2005
 * Steeleye Span, "Ned Ludd Part 1 (Inclosure)", song, from the album Bloody Men, 2006
 * Chris Wood, "I Am", song, from the album None the Wiser, 2013
 * Andy Turner, "The Crow Sat on the Willow", song, 2018
 * Andy Turner, "The Gipsey's Song", song, 2019
 * Robert Farmer, John Clare – Songs from the Shepherd's Calendar, album, 2021

Songs about, inspired by, or containing references to Clare
in chronological order:
 * Chris Wood, "Mad John", song, from the album Trespasser, 2008
 * Pennyless, "John Clare", song, from the album Strange Dreams, 2019

More information about Clare and music
in chronological order:

 * George Deacon, John Clare and the Folk Tradition, Sinclair Browne Ltd, 1983
 * BBC Radio 4, John Clare's Playlist, 2013
 * Derek B. Scott, John Clare and Folksong, 2015
 * Tony Urbainczyk & Rose Urbainczyk, John Clare - poet and fiddler, 1793-1864, 2015
 * BBC Radio 4, John Clare's Scraping, 2020
 * Becky Dellow & Adam Horovitz, The Thunder Mutters, podcast (episodes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9–13, 15–17), 2020–2021
 * Simon Kövesi, Julian Philips, & Toby Jones, The Meeting: A panel discussion on John Clare, his poetry and music, 2021

title: John Clare


text:
Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset

Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset (18 January 1688 – 10 October 1765) was an English peer and politician who served as Lord President of the Council from 1745 to 1751. He also twice served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1730 to 1737 and again from 1750 to 1755.

Life
He was the son of the 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex, and the former Lady Mary Compton, younger daughter of the 3rd Earl of Northampton. Styled Lord Buckhurst from birth, he succeeded his father as 7th Earl of Dorset and 2nd Earl of Middlesex in 1706, and was created Duke of Dorset in 1720.

Perhaps because he had been on a previous diplomatic mission to Hanover, he was chosen to inform George I of his accession to the Crown in August 1714. George I initially favoured him and numerous offices and honours were given to him: Privy Councillor, Knight of the Garter, Groom of the Stole, Lord Steward, Governor of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports. At George I's coronation he carried the sceptre: at the coronation of George II he was Lord High Steward and carried St Edward's Crown. He quarrelled with the King in 1717 and was told his services were no longer required, but was made a duke three years later.

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
Dorset served twice as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, from 1731 to 1737 and again from 1751 to 1755. In 1739, at the foundation of the Foundling Hospital, he was one of that charity's original governors. His first term as Lord Lieutenant was uneventful. His second took place at a time of acute political tension between the two main factions in the Irish Government, one led by Henry Boyle, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, the other by George Stone, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh. Dorset, now heavily influenced by his son George Sackville, made the mistake of openly backing the Archbishop. He was unable to oust Boyle from power, and was accused of being the Archbishop's tool. He became extremely unpopular, leading to his eventual recall.

The current O'Connell Street in Dublin was named in his honour Sackville Street until 1924.

Last years
His last years were uneventful, apart from a riot in 1757 caused by the passage of the Militia Act to raise an army for the Seven Years' War, in which he narrowly escaped injury. He died at Knole on 9 October 1765 and was buried at Withyham in Sussex.

Character
Horace Walpole gave this sketch of his character: "with the greatest dignity in his appearance, he was in private the greatest lover of buffoonery and low company.... he was never thought to have wanted a tendency to power, in whatever hands it was, or was likely to be". Jonathan Swift thought him one of the most agreeable and well-informed men, and best conversationalists, he had ever met. Even harsh critics admitted his dignity and perfect decorum, a last legacy of the manners of the Court of Queen Anne.

Family
He married Elizabeth Colyear, the daughter of Lieutenant-General Walter Colyear (brother of the David Colyear, 1st Earl of Portmore), in January 1709. She later became a Lady of the Bedchamber (1714–1737) and Mistress of the Robes (1723–1731) to Caroline of Ansbach, wife of George II.

Lionel and Elizabeth's sons were:

 * Charles, Earl of Middlesex (later 2nd Duke of Dorset)
 * Lord John Sackville (father of John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset)
 * Lord George Sackville (later Lord George Germain and 1st Viscount Sackville)

They also had two daughters:

 * Elizabeth, who married Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount Weymouth
 * Caroline, who married Joseph Damer, 1st Earl of Dorchester.

title: Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset


text:
Africa Cup of Nations

The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main international men's association football competition in Africa. It is sanctioned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and was first held in 1957. Since 1968, it has been held every two years, switching to odd-numbered years in 2013.

In the first tournament in 1957, there were only three participating nations: Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. South Africa was originally scheduled to join, but was disqualified due to the apartheid policies of the government then in power. Since then, the tournament has expanded greatly, making it necessary to hold a qualifying tournament. The number of participants in the final tournament reached 16 in 1998 (16 teams were to compete in 1996, but Nigeria withdrew, reducing the field to 15, and the same happened with Togo's withdrawal in 2010), and until 2017, the format had been unchanged, with the 16 teams being drawn into four groups of four teams each, with the top two teams of each group advancing to a "knock-out" stage. On 20 July 2017, the Africa Cup of Nations was moved from January to June and expanded from 16 to 24 teams.

Egypt is the most successful nation in the cup's history, winning the tournament seven times, with Cameroon winning five times and Ghana four times. Three trophies have been awarded during the tournament's history; the current trophy was first awarded in 2002. Egypt won an unprecedented three consecutive titles in 2006, 2008, and 2010. In 2013, the tournament format was switched to being held in odd-numbered years so as not to interfere with the FIFA World Cup. Ivory Coast are the tournament's current champions, having beaten Nigeria 2–1 in the 2023 final.

1950s–60s: Origin and early years
The origin of the African Nations Cup dates from June 1956, when the creation of the Confederation of African Football was proposed during the third FIFA congress in Lisbon. There were immediate plans for a continental tournament to be held and, in February 1957, the first Africa Cup of Nations was held in Khartoum, Sudan. There was no qualification for this tournament, the field being made up of the four founding nations of CAF (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and South Africa). South Africa's insistence on selecting only white players for its squad due to its apartheid policy led to its disqualification, and as a consequence Ethiopia were handed a bye straight to the final. Hence only two matches were played, with Egypt being crowned as the first continental champion after defeating hosts Sudan in the semi-final by 2–1 and Ethiopia in the final by a score of 4–0.

Two years later in 1959, Egypt hosted the second ANC in Cairo with the participation of the same three teams. Host and defending champions Egypt again won, after defeating Sudan in the final by a score at of 2–1.

The field grew to include nine teams for the third ANC in 1962 in Addis Ababa, and for the first time there was a qualification round to determine which four teams would play for the title. Host Ethiopia and reigning champion Egypt received automatic berths and were joined in the final four by Nigeria and Tunisia. Egypt made its third consecutive final appearance, but the Ethiopia team emerged as victors, first beating Tunisia and then downing Egypt in extra time.

1960s: Ghanaian domination
In 1963, Ghana made its first appearance as it hosted the event and won the title after beating Sudan in the final. They repeated that as they became champions two years later in Tunisia—equalling Egypt as two-time winners—with a squad that included only two returning members from the 1963 team. In 1965, the CAF introduced a rule that limited the number of overseas players in each team to two. The rule persisted until 1982.

The 1968, competition's final tournament format expanded to include eight of the 22 teams entered in the preliminary rounds. The qualifying teams were distributed in two groups of four to play single round-robin tournaments, with the top two teams of each group advancing to semi-finals, a system that remained in use for the finals until 1992. The Democratic Republic of Congo won its first title, beating Ghana in the final. Starting with the 1968 tournament, the competition was regularly held every two years in even-numbered years; this ended with the 2012 tournament, which was followed by a tournament in 2013, and successor editions in each odd-numbered year. Ivory Coast forward Laurent Pokou led the 1968 and 1970 tournaments in scoring, with six and eight goals respectively, and his total of 14 goals remained the all-time record until 2008. Play was covered for television for the first time during the 1970 tournament in Sudan, as the hosts lifted the trophy after defeating Ghana – who were playing their fourth consecutive final.

1970s: A decade of champions
Six nations won titles from 1970 to 1980: Sudan, Congo-Brazzaville, Zaire, Morocco, Ghana, and Nigeria. Zaire's second title in the 1974 edition (it won its first as the Democratic Republic of Congo) came after facing Zambia in the final.

For the only time to date in the history of the competition, the match had to be replayed as the first contest between the two sides ended in a 2–2 draw after extra time. The final was re-staged two days later with Zaire winning 2–0. Forward Mulamba Ndaye scored all four of Zaire's goals in these two matches: he was also the top scorer of the tournament with nine goals, setting a single-tournament record that remains unmatched. Three months earlier, Zaire had become the first Sub-Saharan African nation to qualify to the FIFA World Cup. Morocco won their first title in the 1976 ANC held in Ethiopia and Ghana took its third championship in 1978, becoming the first nation to win three titles.

1980s: Cameroonian domination
Between 1980 and 1990, Cameroon managed to reach the final of the Africa Cup three times in a row, winning the competition twice in 1984 and 1988 and losing once on penalties against Egypt in the 1986 edition, the other dominant team during this period was Algeria, along with their solid 1982 and decent 1986 World Cup appearances, the North African nation lost in the final against hosts Nigeria in the 1980 tournament allowing the Super Eagles to capture their first championship. After the 1980 edition, Algeria reached the semi-finals of every edition except the 1986 cup until they eventually won the competition in 1990. Ghana's fourth continental title came in the 1982 cup tournament, where they beat host Libya in the final. The match ended in a 1–1 draw after 120 minutes and Ghana national football team won the penalty shootout to become champions.

1990s: The return of South Africa
In 1990, the 1990 African Cup of Nations was the 17th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa (CAF). It was hosted by Algeria. Just like in 1988, the field of eight teams was split into two groups of four. Algeria won its first championship, beating Nigeria in the final 1–0. Nigeria lost once again as they made their third final appearance in four tournaments, this time falling to host Algeria.

The 1992 Cup of Nations expanded the number of final tournament participants to 12; the teams were divided into four groups of three, with the top two teams of each group advancing to quarter-finals. Ghanaian midfielder Abedi "Pele" Ayew, who scored three goals, was named the best player of the tournament after his contributions helped Ghana reach the final; he was, however, suspended for that match and Ghana lost to Ivory Coast in a penalty shootout that saw each side make 11 attempts to determine the winner. Ivory Coast set a record for the competition by holding each of their opponents scoreless in the six matches of the final tournament.

The 12-team, three-group format was used again two years later, where hosts Tunisia were humiliated by their first-round elimination. Nigeria, who had just qualified to the World Cup for the first time in their history, won the tournament, beating Zambia, who a year before had been struck by disaster when most of their national squad died in a plane crash while traveling to play a 1994 World Cup qualification match. Nigerian forward Rashidi Yekini, who had led the 1992 tournament with four goals, repeated as the top scorer with five goals.

South Africa hosted the 20th ACN competition in 1996, marking its first ever appearance after a decades-long ban was lifted with the end of apartheid in the country, which had been followed by a failed attempt to qualify in 1994. The number of final-round participants in 1996 was expanded to 16, split into four groups. However, the actual number of teams playing in the final was only 15, because Nigeria withdrew from the tournament at the final moment for political reasons. Bafana Bafana won their first title on home soil, defeating Tunisia in the final.

The South Africans would reach the final again two years later in Burkina Faso, but were unable to defend their title, losing to Egypt who claimed their fourth cup.

2000s: Egypt's unprecedented treble
The 2000 edition was hosted jointly by Ghana and Nigeria, who replaced the originally designated host Zimbabwe. Following a 2–2 draw after extra time in the final, Cameroon defeated Nigeria on penalty kicks. In 2002, Cameroon's Indomitable Lions won their second consecutive title. This was the first repeat since Ghana had done it in the 1960s and after Egypt had done it before in 1957 and 1959. The Cameroonians beat first-time finalists Senegal, who also debuted in the World Cup later that year, via penalty kicks. Both finalists were eliminated in the quarter-finals two years later in Tunisia, where the hosts won their first title, beating Morocco 2–1 in the final.

The 2006 tournament was also won by the hosts, Egypt, who reached a continental-record fifth title. Ahead of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations several European clubs called for a rethink of the tournament's schedule. Given that it takes place during the European season, players who are involved miss several matches for their clubs.

In January 2008, FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced that he wanted the tournament to be held in either June or July by 2016, to fit in the international calendar, although this would preclude many countries in central and west Africa from hosting the competition (for these months occur during their wet season). The 2008 tournament was hosted by Ghana, and saw Egypt retain the trophy, winning its record-extending sixth tournament by defeating Cameroon 1–0 in the final.

2010s: Switch to odd years
Egypt set a new record in the 2010 tournament (hosted by Angola) by winning its third consecutive title in an unprecedented achievement on the African level after defeating Ghana 1–0 in the final, retaining the gold-plated cup indefinitely and extending its record to seven continental titles (including when Egypt was known as UAR between 1958 and 1961). Egypt became the first African nation to win three consecutive cups and joined Mexico, Argentina, and Iran who also won their continent cup three times in a row. On 31 January 2010, Egypt set a new African record, not being defeated for 19 consecutive Cup of Nations matches, since a 2–1 loss against Algeria in Tunisia in 2004, and a record 9 consecutive win streak.

In May 2010, it was announced that the tournament would be moved to odd-numbered years from 2013 in order to prevent the tournament from taking place in the same year as the World Cup. It also meant there were two tournaments within twelve months in January 2012 (co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea) and January 2013 (hosted by South Africa). The change of FIFA Confederations Cup from a biennial to a quadrennial tournament, and the switching of the Africa Cup of Nations from even to odd-number years, meant that some previous Africa Cup of Nations champions such as Egypt, Zambia, and Ivory Coast (winners of the 2010, 2012, and 2015 tournaments respectively) were deprived from participating in the Confederations Cup tournament.

In 2011, Morocco won the bid to host the 2015 edition, and Libya won the right to host the 2013 tournament, but the 2011 Libyan civil war prompted Libya and South Africa to trade years, with South Africa hosting in 2013 and Libya hosting in 2017. Ongoing fighting in Libya ultimately prompted CAF to move the 2017 tournament to Gabon).

In 2012, Zambia won the final after a penalty shootout against Ivory Coast. This drew increased media attention since the match took place in Gabon, only a few hundred meters from the crash site of the 1993 air disaster of their national team. The 2013 tournament was won by Nigeria, beating first time finalists Burkina Faso.

In 2014–15, the West African Ebola virus epidemic disrupted the tournament. All football activities in Liberia were suspended, and the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia was converted into an Ebola treatment unit. The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations was scheduled to be held in Morocco, but they refused to hold the tournament on the allotted dates due to concerns of the Ebola outbreak, so it was moved to Equatorial Guinea.

In July 2016, Total secured the rights to an eight-year sponsorship package to support 10 of CAF's principal competitions. This began with the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon which was renamed the "Total Africa Cup of Nations".

Since 2019: Tournament expansion
Under Ahmad Ahmad's presidency, there were discussions regarding further changes to the Africa Cup of Nations. In July 2017, two changes were proposed: switching the timing of the competition from January to the Northern Hemisphere summer and expanding from 16 to 24 teams (effective from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations). On 20 July 2017, the CAF Executive Commission approved the propositions at a meeting in Rabat, Morocco.

Algeria won the African Cup of Nations 2019, achieving a 1–0 victory against Senegal in the final. The title was Algeria's second ever and first since 1990. Nigeria came third after beating Tunisia 1–0 in their third-place decider match. The prize money awarded to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations winner amounted to $4.5 million while runners-up Senegal got $2.5 million.

Match days 3 and 4 of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, which was slated from 25 to 30 March 2020, were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations tournament, hosted by Cameroon, and was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Confederation of African Football increased the cash prize for the winner from $4.5 million to $5 million for 2021 Africa Cup of Nations while the second-best team will get $2.75 million. Senegal won the tournament for the first time after beating Egypt on penalties in the final.

Format
The number of teams and the format of each final tournament have varied over the years. In most tournaments, the tournament consists of a round-robin group stage followed by a single-elimination knockout stage.

Since the 1962 edition, this competition has been held in two phases: a qualification phase (or called the elimination phase) and a final tournament. The host country of the final tournament is automatically qualified, and in the first editions the defending champion was also qualified for the following tournament.

Qualifying
The qualification phase has evolved over time according to the increasing number of nations affiliated to the Confederation of African Football (CAF). It was set up from 1962, during the first two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, the founding nations of the CAF participated in the final tournament, namely Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan (South Africa was excluded just after its foundation due to Apartheid).

In 1962, new nations were affiliated and forced CAF to set up a qualifying phase for the final tournament in the form of knockout matches. This system was used until the 1992 edition, when the organization of the qualifying phase became closer to that of the UEFA European Championship, with qualifying groups of four to seven teams depending on the editions where each selection plays a round-trip opposition against each of its opponents, the qualified country being decided according to its classification within its group.

Final phase
Only the hosts received an automatic qualification spot, with the other 23 teams qualifying through a qualification tournament. At the finals, the 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams each. The teams in each group played a single round robin.

After the group stage, the top two teams and the four best third-placed teams advanced to the round of 16. The winners advanced to the quarter-finals. The winners of the quarter-finals advanced to the semi-finals. The losers of the semi-finals played in a third-place play-off, while winners of the semi-finals played in the final.

Trophy and medals
Throughout the history of the Africa Cup of Nations, three trophies have been awarded to the winners of the competition. The original trophy, made of silver, was the Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem Trophy, named after the first CAF president, Egyptian Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem. As the first winner of three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, Ghana obtained the right to permanently hold the trophy in 1978.

The second trophy was awarded from 1980 to 2000 and was named "Trophy of African Unity" or "African Unity Cup". It was given to CAF by the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa prior to the 1980 tournament and it was a cylindrical piece with the Olympic rings over a map of the continent engraved on it. It sat on a squared base and had stylized triangular handles. Cameroon won the Unity Cup indefinitely after they became three-time champions in 2000.

In 2001, the third trophy was revealed, a gold-plated cup designed and made in Italy. Cameroon, permanent holders of the previous trophy, were the first nation to be awarded the new trophy after they won the 2002 edition. Egypt won the gold-plated cup indefinitely after they became three-time champions in 2010. Unlike previous winners who would have then taken the trophy home, Egypt was presented with a special full-size replica that they were allowed to keep. The winner of each edition receives a replica whose dimensions are equal to that of the original trophy.

CAF give 30 gold medals to the winning team, 30 silver medals to the runners-up, 30 bronze medals to the team ranked third and 30 diplomas to the team ranked fourth in the final tournament.

Results

 * Keys
 * a.e.t.: after extra time
 * p: penalty shoot-out
 * awd: awarded result.
 * TBD: to be determined.

Summary

 *  * hosts
 * 1 as United Arab Republic
 * 2 as Congo-Kinshasa
 * 3 as Zaire

Consecutive championships
Teams that have won the Africa Cup of Nations consecutively and have become two-time champions (two consecutive titles) or three-time champions (three consecutive titles). Bold indicate tournament hosts

Awards
There are currently six post-tournament awards
 * the Best Player for most valuable player;
 * the Top Goal-scorer for most prolific goal scorer;
 * the Best Goalkeeper for most outstanding goalkeeper;
 * the Best Young Player for most outstanding young player;
 * the Team of the Tournament for best combined team of players at the tournament;
 * the Fair Play Award for the team with the best record of fair play.

title: Africa Cup of Nations


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Jacques Clément

Jacques Clément (1567 – 1 August 1589) was a French conspirator and the assassin of King Henry III.

He was born at Serbonnes, in today's Yonne département, in Burgundy, and became a Dominican lay brother.

During the French Wars of Religion, Clément became fanatically religious and an ardent partisan of the Catholic League. Viewing Protestantism as heresy, he talked of exterminating the Huguenots and formed a plan to assassinate Henry III in retaliation for the killing of the Duke of Guise and his brother. His project was encouraged by some of the heads of the League, in particular Catherine de Guise, the Duchess Montpensier. He was assured of worldly rewards if he succeeded and of eternal bliss if he failed. Having obtained letters for the king, he left Paris on 31 July 1589 and reached Saint-Cloud, the headquarters of Henry, who was besieging Paris, on 1 August 1589.

Assassination
Clément was admitted to the king's presence, and while he was presenting his letters he told the king he had an important and confidential message to deliver. The attendants then withdrew and, as Clément leaned in to whisper in Henry's ear, he mortally wounded him with a dagger concealed beneath his cloak. The assassin was immediately killed by the returning attendants, but Henry died early in the morning of the following day. Clément's body was later quartered and burned at the stake. His crime led Le Laboureur to anagrammatize "Frère Jacques Clément" into "C'est l'enfer qui m'a créé" ("It is hell that created me").

Although seen by supporters of Henry III as a fanatical, brutal act, the assassination was viewed with very different feelings in Paris and by the partisans of the League. Clément was seen as a martyr and was praised by Pope Sixtus V as well as the Jesuit historian and political philosopher Juan de Mariana, S.J. His praise was such that even canonization was discussed.

title: Jacques Clément


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AFC Asian Cup

The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second-oldest continental football championship in the world after Copa América. The winning team becomes the champions of Asia and until 2015 qualified for the FIFA Confederations Cup.

The Asian Cup was held once every four years from the 1956 AFC Asian Cup in Hong Kong until the 2004 tournament in China. However, since the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football Championship were also scheduled in the same year as the Asian Cup, the AFC decided to move their championship to a less crowded cycle. After 2004, the tournament was next held in 2007, when it was co-hosted by four countries in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Thereafter, it has again been held every four years.

The Asian Cup has generally been dominated by a small number of top teams. Prominently successful teams include Japan (four times), Iran, Saudi Arabia (three times each), South Korea and Qatar (twice each). The other teams which have achieved success are Australia (2015), Iraq (2007) and Kuwait (1980). Israel won in 1964 but was later expelled and has since joined UEFA.

Australia joined the Asian confederation in 2007 and hosted the Asian Cup finals in 2015, winning the competition in the final against South Korea. The 2019 tournament was expanded from 16 teams to 24 teams, with the qualifying process doubling as part of the qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Beginning
A pan-Asian competition was first proposed after the end of World War II, but it was not implemented until the 1950s. Two years after the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) came into being in 1954, the first ever AFC Asian Cup was staged in Hong Kong with seven of the twelve founding members taking part, making the tournament the second oldest continental competition in the world. The qualifying process involved the hosts plus the winners of the various zones (Central, Eastern and Western). It was only a four-team tournament, a format that also existed for 1960 and 1964. Each sub-confederation already hosts their own biennial championship, each with varying degrees of interest.

South Korea demonstrated its superiority in the early years of the competition as the country won the championship in both 1956 and 1960; this remains as South Korea's best achievements in the tournament.

West Asian domination (1964–1988)
After Hong Kong and South Korea hosted the two first editions, Israel was chosen as host of the 1964 AFC Asian Cup. Using the same format of the two previous editions, this tournament only had four teams and played in one single group to determine the champions. Israel eventually topped the tournament ahead of India with three wins. The format was updated to five teams in 1968 before it was expanded to six teams in 1972 and 1976.

The tournament became the preserve of Iran who won three consecutive tournaments in 1968, 1972 and 1976, with Iran hosting the former and the latter. Iran remains as the only national team in Asia to have won three consecutive Asian Cups. The 1972 final was notable as it was the first Asian Cup to use the group stage-knockout phase format, which was followed in the subsequent tournaments with some alternation. Israel was expelled from the AFC in 1972 due to the Arab–Israeli conflict.

From 1980 to 1988, the number of teams taking part expanded to ten, but West Asian countries continued their domination in the 1980s with Kuwait becoming the first Arab country to win the championship in 1980 held at home soil, beating South Korea 3–0 in the final. Saudi Arabia, after an initial poor start, began to emerge as the country qualified, then won two consecutive Asian trophies in 1984 and 1988, overcoming both China and South Korea. Both tournaments were Saudi Arabia's debuts in any major competitions.

Japan's rise and modernization of Asian Cup (1992–2011)
Until the 1990s, Japan was mostly a small name in Asian football, and the country only qualified for the 1988 edition, the first time Japan took part in a continental football tournament. However, as Japan started to make a concrete move inroad to professional football, the country's fortunes increased. Japan hosted the 1992 AFC Asian Cup, which was reduced to eight teams and two groups, where it emerged victorious after beating Saudi Arabia, then-defending champions, 1–0, to win the country's first major international honour.

The 1996 AFC Asian Cup saw the tournament expand to twelve teams in its process of professionalization. Held by the United Arab Emirates, the hosts breached into the final for the first time ever but were unable to win the trophy after losing to Saudi Arabia, who made it into the country's fourth consecutive Asian finals, on penalties. It was Saudi Arabia's third Asian title.

The 2000 AFC Asian Cup saw Lebanon take part in its first Asian tournament, and it was Saudi Arabia who again reached the final, but this time, Japan triumphed over Saudi Arabia 1–0 in a final filled with a majority of Saudi supporters. Japan would go on to retain their Asian trophy four years later, albeit in a more struggling style and a very heated, politically charged final toward hosts China. The 2004 edition was notable as it expanded to 16 teams, and marked Saudi Arabia's absence from an Asian Cup final for the first time.

The 2007 AFC Asian Cup was the debut of Australia, which had abandoned the Oceania Football Confederation in 2006 (coincidentally the first team to qualify for the tournament), as well as being the first football competition in the world to be hosted by more than two nations, with four countries in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia) hosting. In this tournament, Iraq was crowned as Asian champions despite the ravaging American invasion, overpowering the likes of Australia, South Korea and Saudi Arabia in the process.

Australia (which joined the AFC in 2006), after its poor debut in 2007, rebounded to reach the final in 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar, but lost to Japan after extra-time; the win for Japan meant it became the most decorated team in Asian football with four titles. Still, the tournament was notable as the first Asian Cup to use the jersey numbers' order from 1 to 23, previously not practised in prior competitions.

Expansion of the Asian Cup (2015–present)
Following Australia's successes in the 2011 Asian Cup, the AFC approved the country to host the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. At the tournament, Australia managed to clamp down every opponent with only one loss, against eventual finalist South Korea, whom Australia would get a 2–1 final revenge after extra-time; the win officially sealed Southeast Asia's first Asian title as Australia joined the AFF in 2013. AFC Asian Cup began on 12th January 2024 and ended on 10th February 2024.

At the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, video assistant referees were used in the tournament for the first time, and the tournament expanded to 24 teams. In addition, a fourth substitution was allowed during extra time. The tournament, hosted by the United Arab Emirates for the second time, witnessed the rise of Qatar, who conquered its first ever Asian title after beating Japan in the final 3–1. The tournament was marred by the Qatar diplomatic crisis, due to the UAE's entry ban on Qatari supporters, as well as shoe-throwing in the two teams' semi-final clash.

Final tournament
Since 1972, the final tournament has been played in two stages: the group stage and the knockout stage. Since 2019, each team plays three games in a group of four, with the winners and runners-up from each group advancing to the knockout stage along with four best third-placed teams. In the knockout stage, the sixteen teams compete in a single-elimination tournament, beginning with the round of 16 and ending with the final match of the tournament.

Trophy
There have been two Asian Cup trophies; the first one used between 1956 and 2015, and the second one in use since 2019.

The first trophy came in the form of a bowl with circular base. It was 42 centimeters tall and weighed 15 kilograms. Until the 2000 tournament, the black base contained plaques engraved with names of every winning country, as well as the edition won. The trophy was redesigned, adding more silver and reducing the black base to just a thin layer down. This base was plaque-free and the winning countries' names were engraved around the base.

During the draw for the 2019 group stage on 4 May 2018 at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, an all-new trophy made by Thomas Lyte was unveiled. It is 78 centimeters tall, 42 centimeters wide, and weighs 15 kilograms of silver. The trophy is modeled after the lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant. The five petals of the lotus symbolize the five sub-confederations under the AFC. The winning countries' names are engraved around the trophy base, which is separable from the trophy's main body. This trophy has a handle on each side, unlike its predecessor.

Results

 * Key
 * aet: result/match won after extra time
 * p: match won after penalty shoot-out
 * TBD: to be determined

Summary
First four edition of competition only had four or five teams and played in one single group. Since 1972, the final tournament has introduced the knockout stage. Since 2019, no third place play-off has been played; from 2023, losing semi-finalists are ranked by the AFC based on goal difference in the semi-finals.

Bold text denotes team was host country.

Awards
There are currently five post-tournament awards:
 * the Most Valuable Player for best player;
 * the Top Goalscorer for most prolific goal scorer;
 * the Best Goalkeeper  for most outstanding goalkeeper;
 * the Team of the Tournament for best combined team of players at the tournament;
 * the Fair Play Award for the team with the best record of fair play.

Controversies
Despite being the second oldest continental football tournament, the AFC Asian Cup has suffered numerous criticisms. Criticisms over the inability of the AFC Asian Cup to attract large attendances, political interference, high costs of traveling between AFC member states and different cultures were highlighted over the Asian Cup.

Political interference
The AFC Asian Cup is marked with numerous instances of political interference. One of these was the case of Israel, as the team used to be a member of the AFC but following the Yom Kippur War and increasing hostility from the Arab AFC members, Israel was expelled from the AFC in 1974 and had to compete in the OFC, until being granted UEFA membership in 1990. Meanwhile, similar cases also exist in other AFC tournaments like the one between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Following the 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, Saudi Arabia had refused to play against Iran and even threatened to withdraw, afterwards blowing over onto international level. Tensions between the two Koreas during qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup had led North Korea to withdraw from hosting the South Korean team and refusing to display the South Korean flag and play their national anthem. As a result, North Korea's home matches were moved to Shanghai.

Low attendances
Low crowds have also been another problem for the AFC Asian Cup. At the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, there had been concerns over low record of crowds due to little football interests and high costs of traveling between Asian nations leading to then-Australia coach Holger Osieck claiming that the Qatar Armed Forces were used to fill up the stadiums simply for aesthetics, while Australia international Brett Holman commented, "Worldwide it's not recognized as a good tournament".

In 2010, Qatar was chosen as the host country for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The country is set to become the first in the Middle East to host the world's biggest sporting event, triumphing over strong competition from the United States and Australia. Approximately 5 billion people were involved in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, as they followed tournament content through various platforms and devices in the media universe.

On 10 Feb 2024, the AFC announced that the tournament in Qatar had surpassed the previous total attendance record of 1.04 million set during the 2004 tournament in China, with a new record of 1.06 million. This achievement was reached prior to the quarter-final stage.

title: AFC Asian Cup


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CONCACAF Gold Cup

The CONCACAF Gold Cup (Copa Oro de la CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champions of North America (Northern America, Central America, and the Caribbean). The Gold Cup is held every two years. The tournament succeeded the CONCACAF Championship (1963–1989), with its inaugural edition being held in 1991.

So far, only three national teams have won the tournament: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. All of them are member associations of the North American Football Union (NAFU).

Championships before CONCACAF
Before the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) was formed in 1961, association football in the region was divided into smaller, regional divisions. The two main bodies consisted of the Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Fútbol (CCCF) founded in 1938 (consisting of Central America and most of the Caribbean) and the North American Football Confederation (NAFC) founded in 1946 (consisting of the North American nations of United States, Mexico, Canada, and Cuba). Each confederation held its own competition, the CCCF Championship and the NAFC Championship. The CCCF held 10 championships from 1941 to 1961 with Costa Rica winning seven times. The NAFC held four championships in 1947 and 1949, and after 41 years of absence, in 1990 and 1991 for the North American zone as the North American Nations Cup with Mexico winning three times and Canada winning once.

CONCACAF Championship (1963–1989)
CONCACAF was founded in 1961 through the merging of NAFC and CCCF which resulted in a single championship being held for the continent. The first CONCACAF tournament was held in 1963 in El Salvador with Costa Rica becoming the first champion. The CONCACAF Campeonato de Naciones, as it was called, was held every two years from 1963 to 1973. The second tournament was held in Guatemala in 1965 when Mexico defeated the host country in the final of a six-team tournament. The 1967 competition was held in Honduras and saw a third champion crowned, Guatemala. Costa Rica won their second title as hosts in 1969, knocking off Guatemala, while two years later, Mexico won their second championship as the tournament moved to Trinidad and Tobago, the first time in the Caribbean. In 1973, the tournament kept the same format of six teams playing a single round-robin, but there were bigger stakes attached: CONCACAF's berth in the FIFA World Cup tournament in 1974. In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the host country pulled off an upset by winning the tournament and claiming a spot in the World Cup in West Germany.

With the Campeonato de Naciones doubling as the final World Cup qualifying tournament, the next two editions were held in Mexico City and Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 1977 and 1981, respectively. In each case the host country was crowned champion and earned a spot in the World Cup. In 1985 and 1989, the winner of the World Cup qualifying tournament was again crowned Confederation champion. Canada and Costa Rica were named champions in 1985 and 1989, receiving a trophy.

CONCACAF Gold Cup (since 1991)
In 1990, CONCACAF renamed and restructured the CONCACAF Championship as the CONCACAF Gold Cup, with the United States hosting the first competition in 1991, and hosting or co-hosting every subsequent iteration of the tournament (as of 2023). The host country was the inaugural champion of the eight-team tournament. Mexico dominated the remainder of the decade, winning three consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cup titles in 1993, 1996 and 1998.

In 1996, the Gold Cup field included its first guest team, the defending FIFA World Cup Champions Brazil. Guests were invited to participate in the six Gold Cup tournaments from 1996 to 2005. Starting with the 2000 Gold Cup, the tournament field was increased to twelve teams and for the 2007 tournament, the Gold Cup again was contested exclusively by nations within CONCACAF.

The 2007 Gold Cup hosts successfully defended their title beating Mexico in the final 2–1 in Chicago; Canada and Guadeloupe shared third place. Mexico won the 2009 Gold Cup by beating the United States 5–0. In the 2011 Gold Cup, Mexico defeated the USA 4–2 in the final while the USA won the 2013 Gold Cup by beating Panama 1–0.

Since the formation of the Gold Cup in 1991, the CONCACAF Championship has been won nine times by Mexico, seven times by the United States, and once by Canada. Runners-up include Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, and Jamaica.

Before 2015, when the Gold Cup did not fall in the same year as the FIFA Confederations Cup, the winner, or highest-placed team that is a member of both CONCACAF and FIFA, qualified for the next staging of that tournament. In 2015, the winners of the previous two Gold Cups (the 2013 and 2015 editions) faced each other in CONCACAF Cup – a playoff to determine the CONCACAF entrant to the 2017 Confederations Cup.

In January 2017, Victor Montagliani announced the expansion of the Gold Cup from 12 to 16 teams, starting with the 2019 tournament. In November 2018, Costa Rica was announced as one of the hosts of the 2019 tournament, with a group B double-header set to be held at the Estadio Nacional. In April 2019, it was announced that Jamaica would host a doubleheader in group C at Independence Park.

Evolution of the format
The number of teams and the format of each final tournament have varied over the years. In most tournaments, the tournament consists of a round-robin group stage followed by a single-elimination knockout stage.

There has been interest from numerous sources to have the tournament held every four years to potentially increase the prestige, decrease player fatigue and better align with the upcoming European and South American calendars.

Results

 * Notes

Summary
Bold text denotes team was host country.

Debut of teams
A total of 31 teams have participated in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Awards
There are currently five post-tournament awards:
 * Best Player – for the best player throughout the tournament
 * Top Scorer – for most prolific goal scorer
 * Best Goalkeeper – for most outstanding goalkeeper
 * Fair Play Award – for the team with the best record of fair play
 * Young Player Award – for the best young player

Invitees
The 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the first iteration to have a guest from a different confederation, Brazil from CONMEBOL. In spite of bringing their under-23 team, Brazil finished as runners-up to Mexico and outplaced seven teams from CONCACAF. For the next decade, six countries from three confederations would make appearances in the Gold Cup, with seven of the eleven appearances finishing within the top four. Starting in 2007, CONCACAF would no longer invite guests from other confederations. This is primarily due to giving more opportunities from teams in the region to compete, as there was a rise in performances from the region hinted by the FIFA World Ranking.

After a 16-year hiatus from guest nations, Qatar were invited and participated in the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, losing in the semi-finals to the United States. Qatar also participated in the 2023 Gold Cup, where they lost 4–0 to Panama in the quarter-finals.

Media coverage
In Canada, after years on Sportsnet and TSN, it has been broadcast exclusively on OneSoccer since 2021. In Mexico it airs on Televisa and TV Azteca. In the United States, the CONCACAF Gold Cup airs on Fox Sports and Univision (since 2000). CONCACAF also streams Gold Cup matches on YouTube with some geo-restrictions.

Trophy
The Gold Cup trophy is awarded to the champions of the tournament. The design of the trophy has changed multiple times since its inaugural version. Changes include scaling down of the size as well as replacing the original flat rectangular base with an elevated round pedestal. The base includes engravings of the champion nation with the year in which they won the trophy.

title: CONCACAF Gold Cup