Host country Zambia Goals scored 7 (1.75 per match) Dates 26 Feb 2017 – 12 Mar 2017 Teams 8 | Matches played 4 Top scorer(s) Luther Singh (3 goals) Location Zambia Venues 2 | |
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The 2017 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations is the 14th edition of the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (21st edition if tournaments without hosts are included), the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. The tournament is set to take place in Zambia between 26 February – 12 March 2017.
Contents
- Qualification
- Player eligibility
- Qualified teams
- Match officials
- Draw
- Squads
- Group stage
- Knockout stage
- Goalscorers
- References
The top four teams will qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea.
Qualification
The qualifiers were played between 1 April and 24 July 2016. At the end of the qualification phase, seven teams joined the hosts Zambia.
Player eligibility
Players born 1 January 1997 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.
Qualified teams
The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament. Defending champions Nigeria failed to qualify.
Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of final tournament in 1991.
Match officials
A total of 12 referees and 14 assistant referees were selected for the tournament.
Draw
The draw for the tournament took place on 24 October 2016, 11:00 local time (UTC+2) at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo.
The teams were seeded based on the results of the last edition (final tournament and qualifiers).
Squads
Each squad can contain a maximum of 21 players.
Group stage
The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
- Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
- Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
- Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
- If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 apply;
- Goal difference in all games;
- Goals scored in all games;
- Drawing of lots.
All times are local, CAT (UTC+2).
Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time would be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner, except for the third place match where no extra time would be played.