2017 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations
The 2017 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations, officially known as the Total U-20 Africa Cup Of Nations, Zambia 2017, was the 14th edition of the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (21st edition if tournaments without hosts are included), the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. The tournament was set to take place in Zambia between 26 February – 12 March 2017. The top four teams qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea. Qualification. The qualifiers were played between  1 April and 24 July 2016. At the end of the qualification phase, seven teams joined the hosts Zambia. Player eligibility. Players born 1 January 1997 or later are eligible to participate in the competition. Qualified teams. The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament. Defending champions Nigeria failed to qualify. Congo and Ghana also failed to qualify, thus the winners of five of the last six tournaments failed to qualify for this tournament. "Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of final tournament in 1991." Match officials. A total of 12 referees and 14 assistant  referees were selected for the tournament. Draw. The draw for the tournament took place on 24 October 2016, 11:00 local time () at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo. The teams were seeded based on the results of the last edition (final tournament and qualifiers). Squads. Each squad can contain a maximum of 21 players. Group stage. The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on  points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: All times are local, CAT (). Knockout stage. In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time will be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner, except for the third place match where no extra time will be played. Awards. Individual awards. The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament. Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup. The following four teams from CAF qualified for the 2017  FIFA U-20 World Cup.