# 2024 CAFA U-17 Championship

The 2024 CAFA U-17 Championship was the second edition of the CAFA U-17 Championship, the international youth football championship organized by Central Asian Football Association for the men's under-17 national teams of Central Asia. The tournament was held from August 17th to 24th in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. All six CAFA members participated in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2007 eligible to participate.
Host Tajikistan were the reigning champions, having claimed the title in last year's inaugural edition.

## Participation
### Participating teams

All six CAFA member associations entered teams for the final tournament. with Turkmenistan debuting in the competition.
| Team | Appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance |
| Afghanistan | 2nd | 2023 (Third place) | Third place (2023) |
| Iran | 2nd | 2023 (Fourth place) | Fourth place (2023) |
| Kyrgyz Republic | 2nd | 2023 (Fifth place) | Fifth place (2023) |
| Tajikistan | 2nd | 2023 (Champions) | Champions (2023) |
| Turkmenistan | 1st | Debut | Debut |
| Uzbekistan | 2nd | 2023 (Runners-up) | Runners-up (2023) |

### Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2008 and on or before 31 December 2009 were eligible to compete in the tournament.

### Seeding

The 6 teams were drawn into two groups of three teams, with seeding based on their performance at the previous edition. Seeding was shown in parentheses except the team who previously did not participate, which were denoted by (–).
The host Tajikistan automatically seeded to Pot 1 and placed into the first position of Group A.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 |
| Tajikistan (1) (hosts) Uzbekistan (2) | Afghanistan (3) Iran (4) | Kyrgyz Republic (5) Turkmenistan (–) |

### Draw

The draw took place on 15 August 2024.
The draw resulted in the following groups:
Group A :
| Group A PosTeam A1 Tajikistan A2 Afghanistan A3 Kyrgyz Republic | Group B PosTeam B1 Uzbekistan B2 Iran B3 Turkmenistan |

## Group stage

The match schedule was released on August 15th, after the draw was conducted.
All times are local TJT (UTC+5).

### Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:
* Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* 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;
* Goal difference in all group matches;
* Goals scored in all group matches;
* Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
* Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
* Drawing of lots.

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Afghanistan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 6 | Final |
| 2 | Tajikistan (H) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 3 | Third place play-off |
| 3 | Kyrgyz Republic | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | −5 | 0 | Fifth place play-off |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Uzbekistan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 6 | Final |
| 2 | Iran | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 3 | Third place play-off |
| 3 | Turkmenistan | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 7 | −6 | 0 | Fifth place play-off |

## Goalscorers

There were 20 goals scored in 9 matches, for an average of 2.22 goals per match.
3 goals
* Salman Ghafarifouza
1 goal
* Arash Ahmadi
* Azamuddin Hajizade
* Yaser Safi
* Sahil Sarwari
* Abolfazl Kazemirekabdarkolaei
* Mohammadamin Mehralian
* Erfan Khodadadian Miri
* Muhammad Nazriev
* Akhmadjon Shoev
* Nazrullo Ashuralizoda
* Idris Davlatzoda
* Kakamyrat Babaýew
* Süleýmannazar Gowşudow
* Muhammedaly Nasyrow
* Sardorbek Tolaganmirzayev
* Miraziz Abdukarimov
1 own goal
* Bakhodur Nazarzoda (against Iran)
Source: CAFA