Tunisia

AFCON 2004 ran 24 January to 14 February 2004 across four host cities — Tunis (Radès), Sousse, Sfax and Monastir. Tunisia topped Group A with wins over Rwanda and DR Congo plus a draw against Guinea. They beat Senegal in the quarter-finals on penalties and Nigeria 1-1 (5-3 on penalties) in the semi-final. The final against Morocco at Stade Olympique de Radès finished 2-1, with Francileudo Santos and Ziad Jaziri scoring for Tunisia. Roger Lemerre, the former France national-team head coach who had won Euro 2000, became the first manager to win both a UEFA and CAF continental title.

The 2004 squad was built around Radhi Jaïdi at centre-back, Hatem Trabelsi at right-back, Khaled Badra and Jose Clayton in central defence, and the front three of Francileudo Santos, Ziad Jaziri and Adel Chedli. The team played a pragmatic 4-4-2 with Lemerre's positional discipline. The tournament marked the peak of Tunisia's golden generation and remains the only continental trophy lifted by a Tunisian senior international team.

Tunisia have reached three other AFCON finals — 1965 (lost to Ghana 3-2), 1996 (lost to South Africa 2-0) and 2024 (lost to Nigeria 2-1 in the final at Stade Hassan II, Casablanca, on 11 February 2024 per the AFCON 2023 tournament). The 2004 title remains unique in the trophy cabinet.

The Group D fixture was meaningless for France, who had already qualified for the round of 16 and rotated heavily. It was potentially decisive for Tunisia, who needed a win and a favourable Australia-Denmark result. Wahbi Khazri, captain and talisman of the Eagles of Carthage, scored the 58th-minute winner — a left-footed strike from the edge of the area after a defensive scramble. The 1-0 held to the final whistle.

France appealed a 96th-minute Antoine Griezmann equaliser disallowed for offside; FIFA upheld the original decision. Tunisia's win was their second over a European nation at a World Cup and their first over a defending finalist. The other Group D result went against them — Australia beat Denmark 1-0 — and Tunisia were eliminated on goal difference behind France and Australia.

Khazri retired from international football the next day, 1 December 2022. The 74-cap captain ended with 25 international goals and a defining single moment of Tunisian football folklore. He retired from professional football on 12 December 2025 and now serves as a Tunisia national-team analyst.

Tunisia topped CAF Group H in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with the strongest defensive record in any qualifying confederation. Across the campaign (October 2024 to October 2025), Tunisia conceded zero goals. The qualification-clinching match on 13 October 2025 confirmed the historic record. No team has previously reached a World Cup with a clean-sheet record across its entire qualifying campaign.

The 2026 tournament will be Tunisia's sixth World Cup — after 1978 (when they became the first African nation to win a World Cup match, beating Mexico 3-1 in Argentina), 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018 and 2022. Tunisia have never advanced beyond the group stage. The 2026 campaign opens under new head coach Sabri Lamouchi, the French-Tunisian who took over in January 2026 after Sami Trabelsi's AFCON 2025 sacking.

The 2026 squad spine remains Ferjani Sassi and Ellyes Skhiri in midfield. The forward question is more open: Wahbi Khazri retired in 2022, Issam Jemâa retired in 2014, and the next-generation Tunisian striker has not yet emerged. Hannibal Mejbri (Burnley) is the brightest creative midfielder in the European-based diaspora; Anis Slimane and Naïm Sliti carry the senior creative load. The Lamouchi era starts with the AFCON 2025 wound still raw and the 2026 World Cup six weeks closer with every passing month.

Espérance Sportive de Tunis (founded 15 January 1919 in Bab Souika by Mohamed Zouaoui and Hédi Kallel) hold the Tunisian record with 34 Ligue Pro 1 titles and 16 Coupes de Tunisie. Internationally they have won four CAF Champions Leagues (1994, 2011, 2018, 2018-19), one CAF Cup (1997) and one African Cup Winners' Cup (1998) — the most decorated trophy cabinet in Tunisian football.

Club Africain (founded 4 October 1920 in Bab Jedid as the continuation of the dissolved Stade Africain) hold 14 Ligue Pro 1 titles and 13 Coupes de Tunisie per the Wikipedia honours record. The club became the first Tunisian side to win the CAF Champions League in 1991. The 2024-25 financial crisis saw the club under FIFA transfer ban; the 2025-26 season turnaround under Faouzi Benzarti delivered the league title.

Étoile Sportive du Sahel (Sousse) and CS Sfaxien (Sfax) form the Sahel coast counterweight to the Tunis duopoly. Étoile won the 2007 CAF Champions League — the only Sahel-based African continental title. CS Sfaxien have three CAF Confederation Cup wins (2007, 2008, 2013). Together the four clubs supply roughly 80% of Tunisia's senior national-team squad, with the diaspora pipeline filling the remainder.

Domestic broadcast: El Watania 1 and El Watania 2, the Tunisian state broadcasters, carry every Eagles of Carthage international and selected Ligue Pro 1 fixtures. The pan-Arab beIN Sports MENA carries the full Ligue Pro 1 and CAF Champions League rights. Al Kass Sports has selected CAF carriage. Free-to-air is the default for national-team matches under Tunisian public-interest broadcasting rules.

Diaspora coverage: beIN Sports France carries the Eagles in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Canal+ Afrique provides French-language CAF coverage. In North America beIN Sports USA and FuboTV carry the Tunisian national-team broadcast feed.

Betting: Tunisia's only legally licensed sports-betting product is operated by Promosport, the state-owned pools operator under the Ministry of Sports. Promosport's product is essentially a 1X2 pools coupon rather than a full sportsbook. Online private operators are not licensed locally. Off-shore betting on Eagles of Carthage matches is widely available through international platforms (1xBet, Bet365, Betway) but operates in a grey zone. The FTF periodically reminds the public that off-shore betting is unregulated.