The 1982 African Cup of Nations was the 13th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of African nations run by the CAF.

Ghana won its fourth championship, beating Libya on penalties 7−6 after a 1–1 draw.

[1] The 8 qualified teams are: The competition was played in two venues in Tripoli and Benghazi.

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:

4 goals 3 goals 2 goals 1 goal 1 own goal Thomas Nkono Chaabane Merzekane Sampson Lamptey Haruna Yusif Ali Al-Beshari George Alhassan Samuel Opoku Nti Emmanuel Quarshie Fawzi Al-Issawi Salah Assad Rabah Madjer