2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations

2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations
كأس الأمم الإفريقية تحت 17 سنة 2023
Tournament details
Host country	Algeria
Dates	29 April – 19 May
Teams	12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Senegal (1st title)
Runners-up	Morocco
Third place	Burkina Faso
Fourth place	Mali
Tournament statistics
Matches played	23
Goals scored	58 (2.52 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Amara Diouf (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Souleymane Alio
Best goalkeeper	Serigne Diouf
Fair play award	Morocco

The 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations known as the TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes or 2023 U17 AFCON for short was the 14th edition (19th if editions without hosts are included) of the biennial African youth football tournament organized by Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 17 and below and the first to feature 12 teams in the group stage instead of 8.

Algeria was chosen as hosts of this edition on 15 May 2021^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] which it organized from 29 April to 19 May. All four semi-finalists qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia as the CAF representatives.

Cameroon were the defending champions but were eliminated in the group stage after losses to Burkina Faso and to Mali. Senegal won their inaugural title, defeating hosts of the cancelled 2021 edition Morocco 2–1 in the final.

Qualification

The CAF decided on 20 July 2017 that the qualification format should be changed and split according to zones.^[5]

Player eligibility

Players born on 1 January 2006 or later were eligible to participate in this edition of the tournament.

Qualified teams

The following twelve teams qualified for the group stages. However, South Sudan was disqualified from this edition of the tournament after 5 of its players failed the MRI test.^[6]

Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of the group stages in 1995.

Team	Zone	Date of qualification	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Algeria (hosts)	North Zone	17 May 2021	2nd	2009	Runners-up (2009)
Morocco	North Zone	14 November 2022	3rd	2019	Fourth place (2013)
Nigeria	West B Zone	21 June 2022	10th	2019	Champions (2001, 2007)
Burkina Faso	West B Zone	21 June 2022	7th	2011	Champions (2011)
Senegal	West A Zone	7 October 2022	3rd	2019	Group stage (2011, 2019)
Mali	West A Zone	7 October 2022	9th	2017	Champions (2015, 2017)
Cameroon	Central Zone	15 January 2023	8th	2019	Champions (2003, 2019)
Congo	Central Zone	18 January 2023	3rd	2013	Third place (2011)
Somalia	Central-East Zone	12 October 2022	1st	None	Debut
~~South Sudan~~	Central-East Zone	12 October 2022	1st	None	Debut
South Africa	South Zone	9 December 2022	4th	2015	Runners-up (2015)
Zambia	South Zone	9 December 2022	2nd	2015	Group stage (2015)

Venues

The Algerian Football Federation choose three venues in three cities across the host nation Algeria for hosting this edition of the competition: Algiers, Annaba and Constantine.^[7]

Algiers Annaba Constantine		Algiers	Annaba
		Nelson Mandela Stadium	19 May 1956 Stadium
		Capacity: 40,784	Capacity: 58,100

		Constantine
		Mohamed Hamlaoui Stadium
		Capacity: 22,986

Match officials

Referees

Patrice Mebiame
Youcef Gamouh
Vincentia Amedome
Muhammad Elmabrouk
Ousmane Diakaté
Merveil Mandekouzou Vendafara
Akhona Makalima
Nyagrowa Dickens
Adalbert Diouf
Ahmed Arajiga
Soro Tuonifere
Jeannot Bito
Jelly Alfred Chavani
Ben Amisy Tsimanohitsy
Abdulsalam Kasim

Assistant referees

Adolf Lamien Dofinte
Sirak Menghis
Abel Abane
Diana Chikotesha
Ronald Katenya
Queency Victoire
Wael Hannachi
Asma Feriel Ouahab
Stephen Yembe
Fanta Kone
Guylain Ngila
Lucky Kegakologetswe
Djery Gomes Lopes
Carine Atezambong Fomo
Mohamed Serradj
Eba Médard Ettien
Youssef Mahmoud
Mamadou Ngom
Mary Njoroge

Video assistant referees

Lahlou Benbraham
Ahmed El Ghandour
Ahmad Heeralall

Squads

Draw

The group stage draw was conducted on 1 February 2023 at 12:00 WET (UTC±0) at the Cercle National de l'Armée in Algiers, the capital city of hosts Algeria.^[8] The 12 teams were drawn into 3 groups of 4 teams. As hosts, Algeria was seeded in Group A and allocated to position A1, while 2019 champions Cameroon was seeded in Group C and allocated to position C1 and 4th-place-finished team also from the 2019 edition Nigeria was seeded in Group B and allocated to position B1; the remaining nine teams were seeded based on their results in the previous valid edition in 2019.^[9]

Seeded	Pot 1	Pot 2
Algeria (hosts) (A1) Nigeria (B1) Cameroon (C1)	Morocco Senegal Mali	Congo Somalia South Africa Zambia Burkina Faso ~~South Sudan~~

Group stage

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to the three points for a win (3 for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 or none for a loss) and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 13):^[10]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots.

All times are local, WAT and CET (UTC+1).^[11]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Senegal	3	3	0	0	7	0	+7	9	Knockout stage
2	Algeria (H)	3	1	1	1	3	4	−1	4
3	Congo	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2
4	Somalia	3	0	1	2	1	6	−5	1

Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

29 April 2023