The2023U-17 Africa Cup of Nations known as theTotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations forsponsorship purposes or2023 U17 AFCON for short was the 14th edition (19th if editions without hosts are included) of the biennial African youth football tournament organized byConfederation 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 the2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup inIndonesia as the CAF representatives.
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 failedthe MRI test.[6]
Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of the group stages in 1995.
The group stage draw was conducted on 1 February 2023 at 12:00WET (UTC±0) at the Cercle National de l'Armée inAlgiers, 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 inthe previous valid edition in 2019.[9]
Teams were ranked according to thethree 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]
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;
^"L'Algérie organisera l'édition 2023" [Foot / CAN U17: Algeria will organize the 2023 edition].Le Soir d'Algerie (in French). 15 May 2021. Retrieved23 June 2022.
^"Decisions of CAF Executive Committee – 20 July 2017".CAFOnline.com. 20 July 2017. Archived fromthe original on 22 July 2017. Retrieved20 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.
Senegal (1st title)
Morocco
Burkina Faso
Mali
Algeria(hosts)
Nigeria
Cameroon
Congo
Somalia
South Sudan
South Africa
Zambia
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Patrice Mebiame
Vincentia Amedome
Muhammad Elmabrouk
Merveil Mandekouzou Vendafara
Nyagrowa Dickens
Ahmed Arajiga
Soro Tuonifere
Ben Amisy Tsimanohitsy
Ronald Katenya
Queency Victoire
Wael Hannachi
Lucky Kegakologetswe
Djery Gomes Lopes
Youssef Mahmoud
Ahmed El Ghandour
78'
