# 2025 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

The 2025 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the 2025 U20 AFCON or 2025 AFCON U20 for short and as the 2025 TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, is the 18th edition (25th if editions of the tournament without hosts are included) of the biennial African international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The four semi-finalists will also qualify as the CAF representatives for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.
Senegal are the defending champions.

## Qualification
### Player eligibility

Players born 1 January 2005 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.

### Qualified teams

The following 13 teams qualified for the group stages:
| Team | Zone | Date of qualification | Appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance |
| Morocco | North Zone | 23 November 2024 | 6th | 2021 | Champions (1997) |
| Egypt | North Zone | 26 November 2024 | 13th | 2023 | Champions (1991, 2003, 2013) |
| Senegal | West A Zone | 25 September 2024 | 7th | 2023 | Champions (2023) |
| Sierra Leone | West A Zone | 25 September 2024 | 1st | None | Debut |
| Ivory Coast (hosts) | West B Zone | 16 December 2024 | 12th | 2015 | Runners-up (1983, 1991, 2003) |
| Ghana | West B Zone | 27 October 2024 | 13th | 2021 | Champions (1993, 1999, 2009, 2021) |
| Nigeria | West B Zone | 27 October 2024 | 13th | 2023 | Champions (2005, 2011, 2015) |
| Congo | Central Zone | 1 October 2024 | 4th | 2023 | Champions (2007) |
| DR Congo | Central Zone | 1 October 2024 | 2nd | 2013 | Group stage (2013) |
| UNIFAC 2 | Central Zone | 2025 | | | |
| Kenya | Central-East Zone | 18 October 2024 | 1st | None | Debut |
| Tanzania | Central-East Zone | 18 October 2024 | 2nd | 2021 | Group stage (2021) |
| South Africa | South Zone | 3 October 2024 | 9th | 2019 | Runners-up (1997) |
| Zambia | South Zone | 3 October 2024 | 9th | 2023 | Champions (2017) |

### Draw

The draw procedure was announced on 10 February 2025. The 13 teams were drawn into one group of five teams and two groups of four teams. Teams are seeded according to their performance in the 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations. Hosts Ivory Coast were automatically assigned to Position A1 in the draw. Previous edition winners Senegal were assigned to Position C1 and third place Nigeria were assigned to Position B1. The 3 qualified teams that also participated in the last edition (Congo, Egypt, and Zambia) were seeded in Pot 1. The rest of the field were placed in Pot 2 to be drawn into the remaining positions.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
| UNIFAC 2  Egypt  Zambia | Ghana  DR Congo  Morocco  Sierra Leone  Kenya  South Africa  Tanzania |

## Venues

The host country for the final stage of the edition was decided at the annual 2024 CAF Executive Committee meeting and CAF Awards in Marrakesh, Morocco on 16 December 2024, with CAF appointing Ivory Coast as hosts.

## Group stage
### Tiebreakers

Teams will be ranked according to the three points for a win system (3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are 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 were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, if two teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are applied exclusively to these two teams;
* Goal difference in all group matches;
* Goals scored in all group matches;
* Drawing of lots.

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Ivory Coast (H) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | UNIFAC 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | DR Congo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Possible knockout stage |
| 4 | Ghana | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5 | Tanzania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Nigeria | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Egypt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | South Africa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Possible knockout stage |
| 4 | Morocco | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Senegal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Zambia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Kenya | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Possible knockout stage |
| 4 | Sierra Leone | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |

### Ranking of third-placed teams

The ranking of the third-placed teams will be determined after removing the results of the team ranked fifth in Group A.
| Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | A | Third place Group A | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | B | Third place Group B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | C | Third place Group C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-outs are used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 75).

### Bracket

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| May – TBC | May – TBC | | |
| Group A Winners | | | |
| Group A Winners | | May – TBC | May – TBC | |
| 3rd placed team B/C | | May – TBC | May – TBC |
| 3rd placed team B/C | | Quarter-final 1 Winners | |
| May – TBC | May – TBC | | Quarter-final 1 Winners | |
| May – TBC | May – TBC | Quarter-final 2 Winners | |
| Group C Winners | | Quarter-final 2 Winners | |
| Group C Winners | | | | 18 May – TBC | 18 May – TBC |
| 3rd placed team A/B | | | | 18 May – TBC | 18 May – TBC |
| 3rd placed team A/B | | | | Semi-final 1 Winners | |
| May – TBC | May – TBC | | | | Semi-final 1 Winners |
| May – TBC | May – TBC | | | Semi-final 2 Winners | |
| Group B Winners | | | | Semi-final 2 Winners | |
| Group B Winners | | May – TBC | May – TBC | | |
| Group A Runners-up | | May – TBC | May – TBC | | |
| Group A Runners-up | | Quarter-final 3 Winners | | | |
| May – TBC | May – TBC | | Quarter-final 3 Winners | | |
| May – TBC | May – TBC | Quarter-final 4 Winners | | Third place | Third place |
| Group B Runners-up | | Quarter-final 4 Winners | | Third place | Third place |
| Group B Runners-up | | | | 18 May – TBC | 18 May – TBC |
| Group C Runners-up | | | | 18 May – TBC | 18 May – TBC |
| Group C Runners-up | | | | Semi-final 1 Losers | |
| | | | | Semi-final 2 Losers | |

### Quarter-finals

Winners qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

### Tournament rankings

* Ranking criteria
* For teams eliminated in the same knockout round, the following criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the final rankings:
* Goal difference in round eliminated;
* Goals scored in round eliminated;
* If teams eliminated in the semi-finals or quarter-finals are tied, the above criteria are reapplied for the previous knockout round, with this process repeated once more should two semi-finalists remain tied;
* Points in group stage;
* Goal difference in group stage;
* Goals scored in group stage;
* Disciplinary points.
* For teams eliminated in the group stage, the following criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the final rankings
* Position in group;
* Points;
* Goal difference;
* Goals scored;
* Disciplinary points.
* Pos.
* 1
* 2
* 3
* 4
* Eliminated in the quarter-finals |||||||||
* 5
* 6
* 7
* 8
* Eliminated in the group stage |||||||||
* 9
* 10
* 11
* 12

## Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following teams from CAF qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.
* Qualified on
* May 2025
* May 2025
* May 2025
* May 2025
    $^1$ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.