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.

2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations

كأس الأمم الأفريقية تحت 17 سنة 2025 Coupe d'Afrique des nations de football des moins de 17 ans 2025
Tournament details
Host country	Morocco
Dates	30 March – 19 April
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
← 2023 2026 →

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.^[1] 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

Main article: 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations 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.

All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of the group stages in 1995.

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

Draw

The draw procedure was announced on 10 February 2025,^[3] with the draw to occur on 13 February 2025 in Cairo, Egypt. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams.^[4] 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  Ivory Coast  Egypt  Gambia  Somalia  South Africa  Tanzania  Tunisia  Uganda  UNIFAAC 1  UNIFAAC 2  Zambia

Group Stage

All times are local, MST (UTC+1).

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:

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. 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;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. 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
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

First match(es) will be played: March 2025. Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

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	UNIFAC 1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
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

First match(es) will be played: March 2025. Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

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
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

First match(es) will be played: March 2025. Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

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
3	Ivory Coast	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off
4	UNIFAC 2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played: March 2025. Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off

Winners qualify for 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

A3	Play-off 1	C3

April 2025

---

B3	Play-off 2	D3

April 2025

Knockout stage

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

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	April 2025
	Winners Group A
					April 2025
	Runners-up Group B
					QF1
	April 2025
					QF4
	Winners Group D
									19 April 2025
	Runners-up Group C
									SF1
	April 2025
									SF2
	Winners Group C
					April 2025
	Runners-up Group D
					QF3
	April 2025
					QF2				Third place match
	Winners Group B
									April 2025
	Runners-up Group A
									LSF1
									LSF2

Quarter-finals

A1	QF1	B2

April 2025

---

B1	QF2	A2

April 2025

---

C1	QF3	D2

April 2025

---

D1	QF4	C2

April 2025

Semi-finals

QF1	SF1	QF4

April 2025

---

QF3	SF2	QF2

April 2025

Third place match

LSF1	3rd Place	LSF2

April 2025

Final

SF1	Final	SF2

19 April 2025

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.	Team	Pld	W	D	L	Pts	GF	GA	GD
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

See also

• 2025 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

References

1. "CAF Executive Committee approves 2025 Competition Calendar and TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Final Draw Date". 16 December 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
2. Times, iDiski (December 16, 2024). "CAF Announces Key Dates For 2025".
3. "Final Draw for the TotalEnergies CAF Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2025 to take place on 13 February at CAF headquarters in Cairo". Final Draw for the TotalEnergies CAF Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2025 to take place on 13 February at CAF headquarters in Cairo. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
4. "Uganda, Tanzania placed in Group A for U-17 AFCON - CECAFA FOOTBALL" (in Italian). 13 February 2025. Retrieved 13 February 2025.