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2019 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations

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2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations
2019 Afrika U-17 Kombe la Mataifa
Tournament details
Host countryTanzania
Dates14–28 April
Teams8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Cameroon (2nd title)
Runners-upVacant
(originally  Guinea)
Third place Angola
Fourth place Nigeria
Tournament statistics
Matches played16
Goals scored36 (2.25 per match)
Top scorer(s)Angola Capita (4 goals)
Best player(s)Cameroon Stève Mvoué
Fair play award Angola
2017

The 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations was the 13th edition of the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations (18th edition if tournaments without hosts are included), the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 17 and below. In May 2015, it was decided that the tournament would be hosted by Tanzania.[1]

Four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil as the CAF representatives. Cameroon won their second title.

Angola and Nigeria qualified for finishing third and fourth in the competition respectively. Defending champions Mali failed to qualify.

Following completion of the tournament, CAF ejected Guinea from the competition, and deleted its results from the records, for fielding players with passports which had a different date of birth to those the players had used in the U-16 age restricted 'International Dream Cup' in Japan. Senegal were given the remaining place at the U-17 World Cup as they had placed behind Guinea during the group stage.[2]

Qualification

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The CAF decided in July 2017 that the format of the qualifying competition should be changed and split according to zones.[3] The qualifiers were played between 19 July and 18 September 2018. At the end of the qualification phase, seven teams joined the hosts Tanzania.

Player eligibility

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Players born 1 January 2002 or later were eligible to participate in the competition.

Qualified teams

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The following eights teams qualified for the final tournament.[4]

Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of final tournament in 1995.

Team Zone Appearance Previous best performance
 Tanzania (hosts) Central-East Zone 2nd Group stage (2017)
 Morocco North Zone 2nd Fourth place (2013)
 Senegal West A Zone 2nd Group stage (2011)
 Guinea West A Zone 7th Third place (1995, 2015, 2017)
 Nigeria West B Zone 9th Champions (2001, 2007)
 Cameroon Central Zone 7th Champions (2003)
 Uganda Central-East Zone 1st Debut
 Angola South Zone 4th Group stage (1997, 1999, 2017)

Venues

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The matches were played in two venues.

Cities Venues Capacity
Dar es Salaam National Stadium 60,000
Mbagala, Dar es Salaam Chamazi Stadium 10,000

Squads

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Each squad can contain a maximum of 21 players.[5]

Draw

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The draw of the final tournament was held on 20 December 2018, 19:30 EAT (UTC+3), at the Mlimani City Conference Centre in Dar es Salaam.[6][7] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four teams. The hosts Tanzania were seeded in Group A and allocated to position A1, while 2017 third place Guinea were seeded in Group B and allocated to position B1 (2017 champions and runners-up Mali and Ghana did not qualify). The remaining six teams were seeded based on their results in the 2017 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations (final tournament and qualifiers), and drawn to any of the remaining three positions in each group.[8][9]

Seeds Pot 1 Pot 2

Match officials

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A total of 13 referees and 14 assistant referees were appointed for the tournament, including one women referee and two women assistant referees, which is the first time women officials were appointed in a CAF men's tournament.[10][11]

Group stage

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The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point 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 (Regulations Article 72):[5]

  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 are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, EAT (UTC+3).[12]

Group A

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Nigeria 3 2 1 0 7 5 +2 7 Knockout stage and
2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup
2  Angola 3 2 0 1 5 3 +2 6
3  Uganda 3 1 1 1 4 2 +2 4
4  Tanzania (H) 3 0 0 3 6 12 −6 0
Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Tanzania 4–5 Nigeria
Report
Angola 1–0 Uganda
Report
Referee: Nabil Boukhalfa (Algeria)

Nigeria 1–0 Angola
Report
Referee: Hassan El Ghandour (Egypt)
Uganda 3–0 Tanzania
Report
Referee: Samir Guezzaz (Morocco)

Tanzania 2–4 Angola
Report
Referee: Abdulwahid Huraywidah (Libya)
Nigeria 1–1 Uganda
Report
Referee: Blaise Yuven Ngwa (Cameroon)

Group B

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Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Cameroon 3 2 1 0 4 1 +3 7 Knockout stage and
2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup
2  Guinea (D) 3 2 0 1 3 3 0 6 Advanced to the knockout stage,
but disqualified after the tournament.
3  Senegal 3 0 2 1 2 3 −1 2 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup
4  Morocco 3 0 1 2 2 4 −2 1
Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(D) Disqualified
Guinea 0–2 Cameroon
Report
Referee: Tsegay Mogos Teklu (Eritrea)
Morocco 1–1 Senegal
Report
Referee: Abdoul Karim Twagiramukiza (Rwanda)

Cameroon 2–1 Morocco
Report
Referee: Beida Dahane (Mauritania)
Senegal 1–2 Guinea
Report
Referee: Mashood Ssali (Uganda)

Guinea 1–0 Morocco
Report
Referee: Pierre Ghislain Atcho (Gabon)
Cameroon 0–0 Senegal
Report
Referee: Jonesia Rukyaa Kabakama (Tanzania)

Knockout stage

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In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out (no extra time) was used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 73).[5]

Bracket

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Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
24 April – Dar es Salaam
 
 
 Nigeria0 (9)
 
28 April – Dar es Salaam
 
 Guinea (p)0 (10)
 
 Guinea0 (3)
 
24 April – Dar es Salaam
 
 Cameroon (p)0 (5)
 
 Cameroon (p)0 (4)
 
 
 Angola0 (3)
 
Third place match
 
 
27 April – Dar es Salaam
 
 
 Nigeria1
 
 
 Angola2

Semi-finals

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Cameroon 0–0 Angola
Report
Penalties
4–3

Third place match

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Nigeria 1–2 Angola
Report
Referee: Abdoul Karim Twagiramukiza (Rwanda)

Final

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Guinea 0–0 Cameroon
Report
Penalties
3–5
Referee: Dahane Beida (Mauritania)

Winners

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 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations 

Cameroon
Second title

Awards

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The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Top Goalscorer[13] Most Valuable Player[13] Fair Play award[13]
Angola Capita Cameroon Stève Mvoué  Angola

Goalscorers

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There were 36 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 2.25 goals per match.

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 World Cup

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The following four teams from CAF qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup.[14]

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA U-17 World Cup1
 Cameroon 18 April 2019 1 (2003)
 Nigeria 20 April 2019 11 (1985, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015)
 Angola 20 April 2019 0 (debut)
 Senegal 17 May 2019 0 (debut)
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Concerns and controversies

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  • Following Morocco's loss to Cameroon in the group stage, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation lodged a complaint with CAF over allegations that Cameroon had fielded over-age players and falsified documents.[15] The case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence.
  • Following Senegal's loss to Guinea in the group stage, the Senegalese Football Federation lodged a complaint with CAF over allegations that Guinea had fielded over-age players and falsified documents, and the Nigeria Football Federation lodged a complaint with CAF following Nigeria's loss to Guinea in the semi-finals about Aboubacar Conte and Ahmed Tidiane Keita. [16] In 2017, Guinea had a team at the International Dream Cup in Japan: two of the players involved, Aboubacar Conte and Ahmed Tidiane Keita been registered with a date of birth that would make those players ineligible for the competition.[17] After both complaints were upheld, Guinea was ejected from the competition, being replaced by Senegal for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup spot.

Guinean Football Federation punishment

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CAF imposed the following penalties on the Guinean Football Federation:

  • Guinea's representative team were excluded from the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup, and the team was also barred from entering the next two editions of the competition.
  • The Guinean Football Federation was also fined $50,000 USD, with a further $50,000 USD fine (in addition to any other penalty) should a similar incident reoccur within the next four years.
  • CAF ejected Guinea from the competition, with its results being deleted from the records, and requested the return of the runners-up medals: failure to do so would result in an additional fine of $20,000 USD.
  • The two players with falsified documents, Aboubacar Conte and Tidiane Keita, and the Guinean Football Federation official who filed these falsified documents, were all banned from involvement in football for two years.

References

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  1. ^ "CAF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE DECISIONS OF 26 MAY 2015". www.cafonline.com. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
  2. ^ "Guinea found guilty of age-cheating and disqualified from U-17 World Cup". 2019-05-18. Retrieved 2019-05-18.
  3. ^ "Decisions of CAF Executive Committee – 20 July 2017". CAF. 20 July 2017.
  4. ^ "Finalists for Tanzania 2019 emerge". CAF. 20 September 2018.
  5. ^ a b c "Regulations of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations" (PDF). CAFonline.com. 5 June 2018. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  6. ^ "Accreditation for official draw of Total U-20 AFCON Niger 2019 & Total U-17 AFCON Tanzania 2019". CAF. 29 November 2018.
  7. ^ "Rivals kept apart as Tanzania draw Nigeria". CAF. 20 December 2018.
  8. ^ "Draw Procedure for Total U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, Tanzania 2019". CAF. 18 December 2018.
  9. ^ "Procedures of the draw of the 13th Edition TOTAL U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, Tanzania 2019" (PDF). CAF.
  10. ^ "Ground-breaking as Women referees nominated for U-17 AFCON". CAF. 11 March 2018.
  11. ^ "List of Preselected Referees AFCON U17- Tanzania 2019". CAF.
  12. ^ @CAF_Online (13 April 2019). "Here are the fixtures of @Total U-17 Africa Cup of Nations taking place in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania @Tanfootball #TotalAFCONU17" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. ^ a b c "Cameroon crowned Champions as Guinea pay penalty". CAF. 28 April 2019.
  14. ^ "Angola set for debut, Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria qualify". FIFA.com. 21 April 2019. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019.
  15. ^ "Morocco: Cameroon should be disqualified for alleged age-cheating in U17 Afcon | Goal.com". www.goal.com. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  16. ^ "Senegal complain to Caf about Guinea's alleged age-cheating | Goal.com". www.goal.com. 21 April 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  17. ^ "U-16 International Dream Cup 2017 JAPAN Presented by The Asahi Shimbun". JFA|Japan Football Association (in Japanese).
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