2021 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations

The 2021 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, known for sponsorship purposes as the 2021 Total U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, was planned to be the 14th edition (19th if editions of the tournament without hosts are included) of the biennial African youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 17 and below. Cameroon would have been the defending champions.

2021 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations
  • كأس الأمم الأفريقية تحت 17 سنة 2021
  • Coupe d'Afrique des Nations U-17 2021
Tournament details
Host countryMorocco
DatesCancelled
Teams12 (from 1 confederation)
2019
2023

CAF announced Morocco as hosts of this edition in September 2018.[1] This would have been the first edition of the tournament to feature 12 teams in the group stages instead of 8 from previous editions.[2] The semi-finalists would have normally qualified for the 2021 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru as the CAF representatives. However, FIFA decided on 24 December 2020 to cancel that tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]

This edition of the tournament was originally scheduled to take place between 13 and 31 March 2021. However, CAF announced on 8 March 2021 that the tournament had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic both in Morocco and in Africa at large.[4] Zambia offered to host the tournament at a later date to be agreed upon with CAF[5][6] which never materialized.

Qualification

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On 20 July 2017, CAF decided that the qualification format should be changed and split according to zones.[7]

Player eligibility

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Players born 1 January 2004 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.

Qualified teams

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The following twelve teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of final tournament in 1995.

Team Zone Appearance Previous best performance
  Morocco (hosts) North Zone 3rd Fourth place (2013)
  Algeria North Zone 2nd Runners-up (2009)
  Senegal West A Zone 3rd Group stage (2011, 2019)
  Mali West A Zone 9th Champions (2015, (2017)
  Nigeria West B Zone 10th Champions (2001, 2007)
  Ivory Coast West B Zone 6th Champions (2013)
  Tanzania Central-East Zone 3rd Group stage (2017, 2019)
  Uganda Central-East Zone 2nd Group stage (2019)
  Cameroon Central Zone 8th Champions (2003, 2019)
  Congo Central Zone 3rd Third place (2011)
  South Africa South Zone 4th Runners-up (2015)
  Zambia South Zone 2nd Group stage (2015)

Draw

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The draw of the group stage was held on 24 February 2021, 13:00 WAT (UTC+1).[8] The 12 qualified teams were drawn into 3 groups of 4 teams.

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3

Group stage

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The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals along with the two best 3rd placed teams.

Tiebreakers:

Teams are ranked according to the three points for a win system (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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 71):"U-17 AFCON Regulations" (PDF). CAFOnline.com. 20 October 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2021.

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. 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;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Drawing of lots.

All times are in WAT (UTC+1).[9]

Group A

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1   Morocco (H) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2   Uganda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3   Zambia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4   Ivory Coast 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
  MoroccoCancelled  Uganda
  ZambiaCancelled  Ivory Coast

  UgandaCancelled  Zambia
  MoroccoCancelled  Ivory Coast

  MoroccoCancelled  Zambia
  Ivory CoastCancelled  Uganda

Group B

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1   Nigeria 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2   Tanzania 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3   Algeria 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4   Congo 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
  NigeriaCancelled  Tanzania
  CongoCancelled  Algeria

  TanzaniaCancelled  Algeria
  CongoCancelled  Nigeria

  AlgeriaCancelled  Nigeria
  TanzaniaCancelled  Congo

Group C

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1   Cameroon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2   Senegal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3   Mali 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4   South Africa 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
  CameroonCancelled  Senegal
  South AfricaCancelled  Mali

  SenegalCancelled  Mali
  South AfricaCancelled  Cameroon

  CameroonCancelled  Mali
  SenegalCancelled  South Africa

Ranking of third-placed teams

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Pos Grp Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 C   Mali 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 B   Algeria 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 A   Zambia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: [citation needed]


Knockout stage

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Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
          
 
24 March 2021 – Stade El Bachir, Mohammédia
 
 
A1
 
28 March 2021 – Stade El Bachir, Mohammédia
 
C3/B3
 
Winner QF 1
 
24 March 2021 – Stade Moulay Hassan
 
Winner QF 4
 
B1
 
31 March 2021 – Stade El Bachir, Mohammédia
 
A2
 
Winner SF 1
 
25 March 2021 – Stade Moulay Hassan
 
Winner SF 2
 
B2
 
28 March 2021 – Stade Père Jégo
 
C2
 
Winner QF 2
 
25 March 2021 2021 – Stade Père Jégo
 
Winner QF 3Third place
 
C1
 
30 Match 2021 – Stade Père Jégo
 
A3/B3
 
Loser SF 1
 
 
Loser SF 2
 

Quarter-finals

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A1CancelledC3/B3
B1CancelledA2
B2CancelledC2
C1CancelledA3/B3

Semi-finals

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Winner QF 1CancelledWinner QF 4
Winner QF 2CancelledWinner QF 3

Third place

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Loser SF 1CancelledLoser SF 2

Final

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Winner SF 1CancelledWinner SF 2

Broadcasting

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Final standings

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Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by a penalty shoot-out are counted as draws.

Pos. Team Pld W D L Pts GF GA GD
1
2
3
4
Eliminated in the quarter-finals
5
6
7
8
Eliminated in group stage
9
10
11
12

References

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  1. ^ "Decisions of CAF Executive Commitee [sic] - 27 & 28 September 2018". CAFOnline.com. 29 September 2018. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2022. Total U-17 AFCON 2021 : Morocco
  2. ^ "CAF Holds Executive Committee Meeting ahead of CAN Total U-23 Final". CAFOnline.com. 21 November 2019. Archived from the original on 22 November 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  3. ^ "Update on FIFA Women's World Cup and men's youth competitions". FIFA. 24 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  4. ^ "2021 Total U17 Africa Cup of Nations cancelled". CAFOnline.com. 8 March 2021. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  5. ^ "Zambia offers to host cancelled 2021 U17 Africa Cup tournament". ZamFoot. 11 March 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  6. ^ "Zambia ready to host U-17 AFCON". FAZ. 11 March 2021. Archived from the original on 11 March 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  7. ^ "Decisions of CAF Executive Committee – 20 July 2017". CAFOnline.com. 20 July 2017. Archived from the original on 22 July 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2019. The Committee decided to organize zonal qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations for the youth categories (U-17, U-20, U-23), with the flexibility offered to each zone to propose a formula. The committee also resolved to strengthen medical checks in determining the eligibility of players.
  8. ^ "CAN U17 : les 12 qualifiés connus, tirage au sort des poules mercredi!" [CAN U17: the 12 known qualifiers, group draw on Wednesday!]. Afrik Foot (in French). 22 February 2021. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  9. ^ Confederation of African Football [@CAF_Online] (31 January 2019). "Here is the fixtures of #TotalAFCONU20" (Tweet) – via Twitter.