The 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the continent's most important football competition, kicks off later on Saturday with 368 players from the 16 teams in the finals, including co-hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

The 2012 edition is historic, because it will mark the last time the biennial competition will be held in an even year since the inaugural edition in 1957 in Sudan.

Starting from 2013, when South Africa is billed to host it, the tournament shifts to odd years to prevent it from clashing with the World Cup, the sport's biggest and most glamorous event.

After the usual ceremonies to herald the tournament, the first matches will be played in Equatorial Guinea, where the hosts - who are making their first appearance at the tournament - will clash with Libya in the opening game, to be followed by the second group A match between Senegal and Zambia.

Both matches will be played in Bata, one of the two venues in Equatorial Guinea. The other is the capital, Malabo.

The co-host, Gabon, will not taste action until Monday, when it takes on debutant Niger in a group C opener. The third debutant is Botswana.

The 2012 Nations Cup is unique because the traditional African football powerhouses - seven time champion Egypt, Cameroon and Nigeria - are all missing, just as fast rising South Africa. They all failed to qualify for the finals.

In the absence of the giants, the title of favourites has fallen on Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana (a giant in its own right), Senegal and Tunisia, with the first two rated tops.

As usual, West Africa has the biggest number of teams in the finals - at seven (Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal), followed by southern Africa with three teams (Angola, Botswana and Zambia), same as north Africa (Libya, Tunisia and Morocco).

According to information provided by CAF, African soccer's governing body, central Africa has two representatives in co-hosts Equatorial Guinea and Gabon with Sudan being the lone team from the East-Central zone.

Remarkably, Sudan is the only team that will be featuring a full list of home-based players at the tournament. Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso are the only teams with no home-based players in their squad.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that the youngest player at the tournament will be Bertrand Traore of Burkina Faso and English premiership side Chelsea, at 16 years.

Among the stars expected to strut their stuff at the 28th edition are continental icons such as Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and Didier Zokora (Cote d’Ivoire), Andre Ayew and Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Demba Ba, Papiss Dema Cisse and Mamadou Niang (Senegal), Adel Taraabt and Mehdi Benatia (Morocco), Oussama Darragi, Karim Haggui and Issam Jemaa (Tunisia), Pascal Feindouno (Guinea), Seydou Keita, Modibo Maiga (Mali), Moumouni Dagano and Charles Kabore (Burkina Faso), and Collins Mbesuma (Zambia).

Because of its importance, the tournament will not be about football alone. At least two international agencies, UNAIDS and Oxfam, are leveraging its popularity to push their causes.

UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, said it is supporting an innovative AIDS awareness campaign by the Foundation of the First Lady of Gabon, Madame Sylvia Bongo Ondimba.

'The campaign, 'CAN SANS SIDA' (CAN without AIDS), will use the enormous popularity and outreach that football has across Africa to spread the word that zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths is possible in Africa, and that by protecting a new generation from HIV infection, Africa can and will change the course of the global epidemic,' said UNAIDS head Michel Sidibe.

On its part, Oxfam said it had enlisted more than 25 football stars to speak out in solidarity with millions of people facing hunger across their region.

Just as the tournament is due to kick off in Equatorial Guinea, the final will be played in Gabon on 12 February. But while the identities of the teams in the opener are known, those of the teams for the final are still up in the air.

PARTICIPATING TEAMS:

Group A
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
LIBYA
SENEGAL
ZAMBIA

Group B
COTE D’IVOIRE
SUDAN
BURKINA FASO
ANGOLA

Group C
GABON
NIGER
MOROCCO
TUNISIA

Group D
GHANA
BOTSWANA
MALI
GUINEA