The 1980 African Cup of Nations was the 12th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa (CAF).

Nigeria won its first championship, beating Algeria in the final 3−0.

The 8 qualified teams are: The competition was played in two venues in Lagos and Ibadan.

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:

Best Ogedegbe Mustapha Kouici Mohamed Salah El-Din Moussa Camara Christian Chukwu Lakhdar Belloumi Ali Fergani Mahmoud El Khatib Shawky Gharieb Salah Assad Segun Odegbami There were 33 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 2.06 goals per match.