The 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations qualification was a men's under-17
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
competition which decided the participating teams of the
2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.
Players born 1 January 2006 or later were eligible to participate in the competition. A total of twelve teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
who qualified automatically as hosts.
Teams
Since the
2021 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations was cancelled, this will be the first edition in Africa U-17 Cup of Nations to have expanded to 12 teams instead of eight. Each of the six zones received two spots in the final tournament.
;Notes
*Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
*(H): Qualifying tournament hosts
*(Q): Automatically qualified for final tournament regardless of qualification results
*(W): Withdrew
*(D): Disqualified
Schedule
The qualifying competition was split into regional competitions, with the teams entering the qualifying tournament of their zone. The schedule of each qualifying zone was as follows.
North Zone
The 2022 UNAF U-17 Tournament, which also served as the qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations, took place between 8 and 14 November 2022 in
Algiers
Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...
, Algeria.
The four teams were placed in one group, with the winners qualifying for the final tournament. Algeria didn't participate in the tournament, as were automatically qualified for the final tournament as hosts.
All times are local,
DPRA (
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 ...
).
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West A Zone
The WAFU-UFOA Zone A qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations were hosted by Mauritania with the matches played between 1 and 9 October 2022. The draw was announced on 21 July 2022.UTC±0
UTC+00:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +00:00. This time zone is the basis of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and all other time zones are based on it. In ISO 8601, an example of the associated time would be written as 2069-0 ...
).
Group stage
The six teams were drawn into two groups of three teams. The winners and the runners-up of each group advanced to the semi-finals.
;Group A
;Group B
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Knockout stage
;Semi-finals
Winners qualified for 2023 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.
;Final
West B Zone
The WAFU-UFOA Zone B qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations were hosted by Ghana with the matches played between 11 and 24 June 2022. The draw was announced on 15 April 2022.UTC±0
UTC+00:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +00:00. This time zone is the basis of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and all other time zones are based on it. In ISO 8601, an example of the associated time would be written as 2069-0 ...
).
Group stage
The seven teams were drawn into two groups of three and four teams. The winners and the runners-up of each group advanced to the semi-finals.
;Group A
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;Group B
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Knockout stage
;Semi-finals
Winners qualified for 2023 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.
;Third place
;Final
Central Zone
The UNIFFAC
The Central African Football Federations' Union, officially abbreviated as UNIFFAC, is a sports governing body representing the football associations of Central Africa. Former president of the Cameroonian Football Federation, Iya Mohammed was elec ...
qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations were planned to be held in Cameroon between 7–12 January 2023 but was postponed and eventually played between 12 and 18 January 2023 due to a number of players being deemed overage by the MRI tests for Chad, DR Congo and Cameroon.
Central-East Zone
The CECAFA
The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (, , , ; officially abbreviated as CECAFA) is an association of the football playing nations in mostly East Africa and parts of Central Africa. An affiliate of the Confederation of Afr ...
qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations were hosted by Ethiopia, with the matches played between 2 and 19 October 2022. The draw was announced on 15 September 2022.
All times are local, EAT
Eating (also known as consuming) is the ingestion of food. In biology, this is typically done to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and nutrients and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive – ...
(UTC+3
UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a UTC offset, time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Following the ISO 8601 standard, ...
).
Group stage
The ten teams were initially drawn into two groups of five teams. Ethiopia, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan and Eritrea were drawn into Group A and Uganda, Djibouti, Sudan, Burundi and Rwanda were drawn into Group B. However, on 26 September, Eritrea and Rwanda withdrew from the competition, leaving both the groups with four teams.
Knockout stage
;Semi-finals
Winners qualified for 2023 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.
;Third place
;Final
South Zone
The COSAFA
Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (; ), officially abbreviated as COSAFA, is an association of the football playing nations in Southern Africa. It is affiliated to CAF.
COSAFA organise several tournaments in the Southern African ...
qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations were played between 2 and 11 December 2022 in Malawi. The draw was announced on 4 November 2022.CAT
The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
(UTC+2
UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00.
As standard time (year-round)
Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...
).
Group stage
The nine teams were initially drawn into three groups of three teams. Malawi, Botswana and Namibia were drawn into Group A; Angola, South Africa and Mauritius were drawn into Group B; and Zambia, Mozambique and Seychelles were drawn into Group C.
However, a few days later, Mauritius withdrew from the competition, leaving Group B with only two teams. A redraw was then conducted on 29 November, with eight teams drawn into two groups of four teams.
Knockout stage
;Semi-finals
Winners qualified for 2023 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.
;Third place
;Final
Qualified teams
The following 12 teams qualified for the final tournament. However, South Sudan was disqualified from the tournament after 5 players failed the MRI test.1 Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.
Goalscorers
See also
* 2023 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations qualification
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Africa U-17 Cup of Nations qualification 2023
Qualification
Qualification may refer to:
Processes
* Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress
* Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...
2023
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U-17 Cup of Nations qualification
U-17 Cup of Nations qualification
Association football events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic