# 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations

The 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations known as the TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes or 2025 U17 AFCON for short is the 15th edition (20th if editions without hosts are included) of the biennial African youth football tournament organized by Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 17 and below.
Morocco was chosen as the host of this edition on 16 December 2024 at the annual CAF Executive Committee meeting along the 2024 CAF Awards ceremony in Marrakesh, Morocco where CAF appointed the country as host. which it organised from 30 March to 19 April. The top 10 teams will qualify for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar as the CAF representatives.
It is the first U-17 Africa Cup of Nations to feature 16 teams.
Senegal are the defending champions.

## Qualification
### Player eligibility

Players born on 1 January 2008 or later were eligible to participate in this tournament edition.

### Qualified teams

The following teams have qualified for the group stage.
| Team | Zone | Date of qualification | Appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance |
| Egypt | North Zone | 23 November 2024 | 4th | 2011 | Champions (1997) |
| Morocco (hosts) | North Zone | 23 November 2024 | 4th | 2023 | Runners-up (2023) |
| Tunisia | North Zone | 5 February 2025 | 4th | 2013 | Third place (2013) |
| Mali | West A Zone | 1 November 2024 | 10th | 2023 | Champions (2015, 2017) |
| Senegal | West A Zone | 1 November 2024 | 4th | 2023 | Champions (2023) |
| Gambia | West A Zone | 5 February 2025 | 5th | 2011 | Champions (2005, 2009) |
| Burkina Faso | West B Zone | 25 May 2024 | 8th | 2023 | Champions (2011) |
| Ivory Coast | West B Zone | 25 May 2024 | 6th | 2015 | Champions (2013) |
| Cameroon | Central Zone | 22 February 2025 | 9th | 2023 | Champions (2003, 2019) |
| Central African Republic | Central Zone | 22 February 2025 | 1st | None | Debut |
| Tanzania | Central-East Zone | 24 December 2024 | 3rd | 2019 | Group stage (2017, 2019) |
| Uganda | Central-East Zone | 24 December 2024 | 2nd | 2019 | Group stage (2019) |
| Somalia | Central-East Zone | 5 February 2025 | 2nd | 2023 | Group stage (2023) |
| Angola | South Zone | 11 December 2024 | 5th | 2019 | Third place (2019) |
| Zambia | South Zone | 11 December 2024 | 3rd | 2023 | Group stage (2015, 2023) |
| South Africa | South Zone | 5 February 2025 | 5th | 2023 | Runners-up (2015) |

## Venues

The host country for the final tournament is Morocco, appointed during the General Assembly held in Marrakech, Morocco on 16 December 2024.
The Royal Moroccan Football Federation choose four venues in four cities across the host nation Morocco: Casablanca, El Jadida, Mohammedia and Berrechid.
| Casablanca | Casablanca | El Jadida | El Jadida | Mohammedia | Mohammedia | Berrechid | Berrechid |
| Larbi Zaouli Stadium | Larbi Zaouli Stadium | Ben M'Hamed El Abdi Stadium | Ben M'Hamed El Abdi Stadium | El Bachir Stadium | El Bachir Stadium | Berrechid Municipal Stadium | Berrechid Municipal Stadium |
| Capacity: 18,600 | Capacity: 18,600 | Capacity: 15,000 | Capacity: 15,000 | Capacity: 10,000 | Capacity: 10,000 | Capacity: 5,000 | Capacity: 5,000 |

## Draw

The draw procedure was announced on 10 February 2025, with the draw to occur on 13 February 2025 in Cairo, Egypt. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Teams are seeded according to their performance in the 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations. Hosts Morocco were automatically assigned to Position A1 in the draw. Previous edition winners Senegal were assigned to Position C1 with Burkina Faso and Mali assigned to positions B1 and D1 respectively. The rest of the field were placed in Pot 1 to be drawn into the remaining positions.
| Seeded | Pot 1 |
| Morocco (A1)  Senegal (C1)  Burkina Faso (B1)  Mali (D1) | Angola  Cameroon  Central African Republic  Ivory Coast  Egypt  Gambia  Somalia  South Africa  Tanzania  Tunisia  Uganda  Zambia |

## 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 | Morocco (H) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| 2 | Uganda | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| 3 | Tanzania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off |
| 4 | Zambia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Burkina Faso | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| 2 | Cameroon | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| 3 | South Africa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off |
| 4 | Egypt | 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 and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| 2 | Gambia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| 3 | Somalia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off |
| 4 | Tunisia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |

### Group D

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Mali | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| 2 | Angola | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Knockout stage and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| 3 | Ivory Coast | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off |
| 4 | Central African Republic | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |

## FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off

Winners qualify for 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

## 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 |
| 10 April 2025 | 10 April 2025 | | |
| Winners Group A | | | |
| Winners Group A | | 15 April | 15 April | |
| Runners-up Group B | | 15 April | 15 April |
| Runners-up Group B | | QF1 | |
| 11 April | 11 April | | QF1 | |
| 11 April | 11 April | QF4 | |
| Winners Group D | | QF4 | |
| Winners Group D | | | | 19 April | 19 April |
| Runners-up Group C | | | | 19 April | 19 April |
| Runners-up Group C | | | | SF1 | |
| 11 April | 11 April | | | | SF1 |
| 11 April | 11 April | | | SF2 | |
| Winners Group C | | | | SF2 | |
| Winners Group C | | 15 April | 15 April | | |
| Runners-up Group D | | 15 April | 15 April | | |
| Runners-up Group D | | QF3 | | | |
| 10 April | 10 April | | QF3 | | |
| 10 April | 10 April | QF2 | | Third place match | Third place match |
| Winners Group B | | QF2 | | Third place match | Third place match |
| Winners Group B | | | | 18 April | 18 April |
| Runners-up Group A | | | | 18 April | 18 April |
| Runners-up Group A | | | | LSF1 | |
| | | | | LSF2 | |

### Final
## 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
* 13
* 14
* 15
* 16