Good day everyone, I hope you are in good health. I want to specially appreciate the Steem for Pakistan community as well as @saintkelvin17 for this beautiful contest.

What do you understand by the word Afcon?

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Afcon is an acronym for African Cup of Nations. It is the priced trophy for the football community in Africa. It is a competition that looks to prove the best footballing nation in the continent Africa.
Afcon is a competition hosted by CAF, the football governing body in Africa. CAF, meaning Confederation of African Football, has its headquarters in Egypt. Afcon is a bi-yearly tournament, i.e it is scheduled to be held at a two year interval (every two years), the competition is held in different countries in Africa.
The competition has been played 34 times with Egypt as the highest winners being Champions seven times.

Talk about two African countries that participated in the 2023/24 Afcon

Cape Verde

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"Cape Verde or Capo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde is an island country in Africa. It is a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean. They have a volcanic origin.The capital city of Cape Verde is Praise, a city they moved to in 1712 due to pirate raids from the French people." ^Source

"Cabo Verde consists of nine inhabited islands, one uninhabited island, and various islets, located between 14°30′ and 17°30′ N and between 22°30′ and 25°30′ W. The archipelago is divided into the Barlavento (Windward) group to the north and the Sotavento (Leeward) group to the south. The Barlavento Islands include Santo Antão, São Vicente, Santa Luzia (which is uninhabited), São Nicolau, Sal, and Boa Vista, together with the islets of Raso and Branco. The Sotavento Islands include Maio, Santiago, Fogo, and Brava and the three islets called the Rombos—Grande, Luís Carneiro, and Cima." ^Source

Mali

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"Mali is a landlocked country of western Africa, mostly in the Saharan and Sahelian regions. Mali is largely flat and arid. The Niger River flows through it and provides much needed fertile agricultural soil along its banks as well as creating pasture for livestock. The capital of Mali is Bamako.Mali is bounded on the north by Algeria, on the east by Niger and Burkina Faso, on the south by Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea, and on the west by Senegal and Mauritania." ^Source

"French is the official language of Mali, but languages of the Niger-Congo family dominate. One of them, Bambara, is used as a lingua franca by some four-fifths of the population. Mande languages—including Bambara, Malinke, Khasonke, Wasulunka, and Soninke—have the largest number of speakers, but the Gur branch (which includes Bwa, Moore, Senufo, and Minianka languages) and the Atlantic branch (which includes Fula and Tukulor and may include Dogon) are also represented.
Among the other languages of Mali are varieties of Semitic languages (Afro-Asiatic) and Songhai (Nilo-Saharan). The Moors and the Tuareg speak and write Arabic, although the Tuareg have also retained their traditional Amazigh language and their distinctive writing system, tifinagh, which is derived from ancient Libyan. Songhai is used along the Niger River." ^Source

which country do you think will host the next Afcon
According to official announcement from CAF a few months ago, Morocco would host the next AFCON

What do you have to say about Nigeria not winning the Afcon after getting to the final stage?
As it's often said, it's not over until it is over (90 minutes). Nigeria from the start of the game had a disadvantage due to the crowd of Ivorians in the stands, and then in the first half Nigeria showed discipline and went about their business diligently.
In the second half, Nigerians had a belief that their defensive set up could not be breached as it had not been breached all the time and forgetting fatigue is a major disadvantage in sports, so with more pressure the post was opened and the game plan of the Ivorians prevailed.
Nigeria could not adjust to the changing conditions of the game while the Ivorians were not ready to settle seeing they had the entire nation cheering them on. With a lot of crowd cheers the body tends to accept the extra mental push and Nigeria could no longer cope. It was a nice run and I believe they would return to the finals soon.

Thank you for finding time to look through my piece.
I invite @uduak1 @aspiya @kelvinblaq