The 2011 African U-23 Championship was the first edition of the football tournament for players under 23 years. It was originally scheduled to be hosted by Egypt from 26 November to 10 December 2011. However, less than two months prior to the start of the tournament, Egyptian authorities decided against hosting the competition because of security concerns. On 13 October 2011, Morocco was chosen as the replacement to host the tournament. The tournament also doubles up as the qualifiers for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. The top 3 placed teams qualified automatically for the 2012 Summer Olympics football tournament, while the 4th best placed team qualify for a

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...

with an AFC counterpart.

Qualified teams

The Confederation of African Football chose to create a tournament and qualifying phase to decide which associations could represent Africa at the 2012 Olympic Games. Of CAF's 53 association nations, 39 agreed to participate in the qualifiers for the tournament. To qualify for the tournament, participating nations had to overcome three two-legged qualifying stages. Qualified teams: * * * * * * * *

Venues

Draw

The draw for the tournament was held on 24 September 2011 during the CAF Executive Committee meeting in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, Egypt.

Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

Squads

Group stage

''All times given as local time (

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

)'' If two or more teams tied in their points, the following tie-breaker is used: # Points in the matches between the concerned teams, # Goal difference in the matches between the concerned teams, # Number of goals in the matches between the concerned teams, # Goal difference in all group matches, # Number of goals in all group matches, # Fair Play point (number of yellow and red cards), # Drawing of lots.

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

''All times given as local time (

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

)''

Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Best eleven

The team of the tournament with substitutes: *

Goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

: Ahmed El Shenawy *

Defenders Defender(s) or The Defender(s) may refer to: * Defense (military) * Defense (sports) ** Defender (association football) Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre Film * ''The Defender'' (1989 film), a Canadian documentary * ''The D ...

: Mahan Marc Goua, Moaz El-Henawy, Remy Ebanega, Zakarya Bergdich *

Midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

s: Sameehg Doutie,

Hossam Hassan Hossam Hassan Hassanein (; born 10 August 1966) is an Egyptian former professional association football, football player who played as a Striker (association football), striker, and current coach of the Egypt national football team, Egyptian nat ...

, Abdelaziz Barrada, Raheem Lawal * Forwards:

Youness Mokhtar Youness Mokhtar (; born 29 August 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Derde Divisie club DVS '33. Born in the Netherlands, Mokhtar has represented both his native country and Morocco internationally at youth level. Clu ...

Abdoulaye Sané Abdoulaye Sané (born 15 October 1992) is a Senegalese professional footballer who currently plays as a forward for Hong Kong Premier League club Kowloon City. Club career Sané began his career with AS Douanes in the Senegal Premier League. ...

* Subs:

Ousmane Mané Ousmane Mané (born 1 October 1990 in Diourbel) is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays for as a goalkeeper for Hafia FC. He represented Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Afric ...

(GK); Ahmed Hegazy and

Mohamed Salah Mohamed Salah Hamed Mahrous Ghaly (, ; born 15 June 1992), also known as Mo Salah, is an Egyptian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a right winger or Forward (association football), forward for club Liverpool F.C., L ...

, Allen Nono, Laglais Xavier Kouassi and Jean Michael Seri,

Soufiane Bidaoui Soufiane Bidaoui (born 20 April 1990) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club SPAL. Born in Belgium, he represented Morocco at the 2012 Olympics. Club career Born in Etterbeek, Belgium, Bidaoui has played club football i ...

and Adnane Tighadouini, Danny Uchechi, Mohamed Chalali

Goalscorers

;3 goals * Abdelaziz Barrada * Raheem Lawal ;2 goals * Ahmed Shroyda * Emmanuel Ndong Mba *

* Danny Uchechi ;1 goal *

Mehdi Benaldjia Mehdi Benaldjia (born May 14, 1991) is an Algerian football player. Personal Benaldjia is the younger brother of footballer Mohamed Billel Benaldjia. International career On November 16, 2011, he was selected as part of Algeria's squad for the ...

Baghdad Bounedjah Baghdad Saddam Bounedjah (, born 24 November 1991) is an Algerian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Qatar Stars League club Al-Shamal and the Algeria national team. Throughout his club career until 2015, Bounedjah played for ...

* Georges Henri Griffiths * Moussa Koné *

Lacina Traoré Lacina Emeghara Traoré (born 20 May 1990) is an Ivorian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He is nicknamed “The Big Tree”, due to his 1.98m frame, which puts him am ...

* Ahmed Magdi * Marwan Mohsen * Mohamed Elneny *

* Saleh Gomaa * Johan Diderot Lengoualama * Allen Nono * Landry Obiang Obiang *

André Biyogo Poko André Ivan Biyogo Poko (born 7 March 1993) is a Gabonese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for TFF First League club Amedspor and for the Gabon national team. He was part of the Gabon national team in the 2021 AFCON tourname ...

* Lionel Yacouya * Adnane Tighadouini * Kara Mbodj *

* Omar Wade * Phumelele Bhengu * Mandla Masango

Criticisms

Some have questioned the need for the tournament and believe that the CAF-organised Under-23 football tournament, the

2011 All-Africa Games The 10th All-Africa Games (), also known as Maputo 2010, took place between September 3–18, 2011 in Maputo, Mozambique. Maputo's hosting marked the third time the Games was held in the southern part of the continent. Host awarding In April 20 ...

' football tournament should have been used as a qualifying tournament. The increase in number of national U-23 fixtures caused some domestic league schedules to be revised and some league games took place with weakened teams. There has been criticism from fans towards clubs who have not allowed their players to participate in the qualifying stages as the tournament is not featured on the

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

Calendar whilst the Olympics tournament is. In effect this means that African nations can call on European-based players for the Olympic tournament who were not able to participate in qualifying due to club commitments.

Qualified teams for Summer Olympics

The following three teams from CAF qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics men's football tournament. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year.

References

External links

CAF U-23 Championship
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caf U-23 Championship, 2011 Caf, Men

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

International association football competitions hosted by Morocco U-23 Championship