Nigeria won its 7th consecutive title, beating Ghana 1–0 in the final, although both finalists were guaranteed qualification to that edition of the international tournament in China.

[4] The original hosts (Gabon) qualified automatically, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualification rounds which took place from March to August 2006.

Nigeria initially entered qualification at the second round and was scheduled to play Equatorial Guinea when CAF elected them as replacement hosts, thus that match was scrapped and both teams qualified for the group stage at Gabon's expense.

If two or more teams in the group stage are tied on points tie-breakers are in order: Equatorial Guinea arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in a private chartered plane which had no clearance to land, with its players unable to disembark for 3 hours.

This left them no other choice than to return home unhappy with the treatment they received by airport officials despite organizers trying to remedy the situation.