2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations

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)
Venues	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Morocco (1st title)
Runners-up	Mali
Third place	Ivory Coast
Fourth place	Burkina Faso
Tournament statistics
Matches played	34
Goals scored	100 (2.94 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Asharaf Tapsoba; Alynho Haïdara; (7 goals each)
Best player	Abdellah Ouazane
Best goalkeeper	Chouaib Bellaarouch
Fair play award	Mali
	← 2023 2026 →

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, was 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.^[1] which it organised from 30 March to 19 April. The top 10 teams qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar as the CAF representatives.

It was the first U-17 Africa Cup of Nations to feature 16 teams. Senegal entered as the defending champions but were eliminated in the quarter-finals. Morocco won the tournament, claiming their first U-17 Africa Cup of Nations title.^[2]

Qualification

Player eligibility

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

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the tournament.

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	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		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)

Match officials

Venues

The host country for the final tournament is Morocco, appointed during the General Assembly held in Marrakech, Morocco on 16 December 2024.^[3]

The Royal Moroccan Football Federation choose four venues in four cities across the host nation Morocco: Casablanca, El Jadida, Mohammedia and Berrechid.^[4]

Casablanca	El Jadida	Mohammedia	Berrechid
Larbi Zaouli Stadium	Ben M'Hamed El Abdi Stadium	El Bachir Stadium	Berrechid Municipal Stadium
Capacity: 18,600	Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 5,000

Squads

The 16 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 21 players with an option of up to 5 more additional players, including three goalkeepers. Only players born on or after 1 January 2008 are eligible to be registered in these squads.

Draw

The draw procedure was announced on 10 February 2025,^[5] with the draw to occur on 13 February 2025 in Cairo, Egypt. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams.^[6] 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 Egypt Gambia Ivory Coast Somalia South Africa Tanzania Tunisia Uganda Zambia

Group stage

Tiebreakers

Teams were 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 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 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)	3	2	1	0	8	0	+8	7	Knockout stage and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup
2	Zambia	3	2	1	0	6	2	+4	7	Knockout stage and 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup
3	Uganda	3	1	0	2	4	7	−3	3	FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off
4	Tanzania	3	0	0	3	1	10	−9	0

Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

30 March 2025