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The Confederation of African Football banned Morocco from the entering the prestigious event and turned to Equatorial Guinea.
The tiny, oil rich nation in Central Africa co-hosted AFCON in 2012 with Gabon, which meant it had the facilities in place to handle its short notice call up.
But choosing Equatorial Guinea as host for one of the world's most important football tournaments was not without its problems.
"For CAF to give the tournament to Equatorial Guinea was a controversial decision," former professional footballer Lutz Pfannenstiel told CNN.
"Western officials cite Equatorial Guinea as an example of a resource rich country that is plagued by kleptocracy problems."
Equatorial Guinea, a country of just 780,000 inhabitants, is known for its extremes of wealth and poverty.