en 2021 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

2021 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations
كأس أمم إفريقيا تحت 20 سنة 2021; Coupe d'Afrique des Nations des U-20 2021
Tournament details
Host country	Mauritania
Dates	14 February – 6 March
Teams	12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Ghana (4th title)
Runners-up	Uganda
Third place	Gambia
Fourth place	Tunisia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	52 (2 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Derrick Kakooza; (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Abdul Fatawu
Fair play award	Uganda
	← 2019 2023 →

The 2021 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations was the 16th edition (23rd edition if editions of the tournament without hosts are included), the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. In September 2018, it was decided that the tournament would be hosted by Mauritania.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] This would be the first edition of the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations to be expanded to 12 teams instead of eight.^[6] The top four teams of the tournament would have normally qualified for the 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia as the CAF representatives. However, FIFA decided to cancel the tournament on 24 December 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[7]

The defending champions Mali failed to qualify. Ghana won their fourth title by defeating debutant Uganda in the final.

Qualification

At the end of the qualification phase, eleven teams will join the hosts Mauritania.

Player eligibility

Players born 1 January 2001 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.

Qualified teams

The following 12 teams qualified for the group stages.

Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of the competition in 1991.

Team	Zone	Appearance	Previous best performance
Mauritania (hosts)	West A Zone	1st	Debut
Morocco	North Zone	5th	Champions (1997)
Tunisia	North Zone	1st	Debut
Gambia	West A Zone	3rd	Third place (2007)
Ghana	West B Zone	12th	Champions (1993, 1999, 2009)
Burkina Faso	West B Zone	4th	Fourth place (2003)
Uganda	Central-East Zone	1st	Debut
Tanzania	Central-East Zone	1st	Debut
Central African Republic	Central Zone	1st	Debut
Cameroon	Central Zone	10th	Champions (1995)
Namibia	South Zone	1st	Debut
Mozambique	South Zone	1st	Debut

Venues

Nouakchott
Stade Olympique	Stade Cheikha Ould Boïdiya
Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 8,200

Nouadhibou	Nouakchott Nouadhibou
Stade Municipal de Nouadhibou
Capacity: 10,300

Squads

Draw

The group stage draw was held on 25 January 2021, 11:00 AM WAT (UTC+1), at the Hilton Hotel in Cameroon.^[8] The twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four teams. The hosts, Mauritania, were seeded in Group A and allocated to position A1, with Ghana and Burkina Faso, the only teams among the 12 who participated in the last edition of the CAN Total U20, drawn into B1 & C1 positions. All the other teams were in the same level and were distributed over the three groups.

Hosts	Pot 1	Pot 2
Mauritania (A1)	Ghana Burkina Faso	Cameroon Tunisia Morocco Gambia Central African Republic Mozambique Namibia Uganda Tanzania

Match officials

A total of 16 referees and 18 assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.^[9]

Referees

Abdelaziz Bouh (Mauritania)
Jean Ouattara (Burkina Faso)
Blaise Yuven Ngwa (Cameroon)
Samuel Uwikunda (Rwanda)
Ibrahim Kalilou Traoré (Ivory Coast)
Messie Jessie Nkounkou Mvoutou (Congo)
Celso Alvacao (Mozambique)
Mutaz Ibrahim Al-Shalmani (Libya)
Pierre Ghislain Atcho (Gabon)
Mahmood Ali Mahmood Ismail (Sudan)
Mohamed Ali Moussa (Niger)
Souleiman Ahmed Djama (Djibouti)
Adalbert Diouf (Senegal)
Mahamat Alhadji Allaou (Chad)
Akhona Makalima (South Africa)
Mehrez Melki (Tunisia)

Assistant Referees

Hamedine Diba (Mauritania)
Meriem Chedad (Mauritania)
Samuel Kuria (Kenya)
Abbes Akram Zerhouni (Algeria)
Michael Conteh (Sierra Leone)
Modibo Samake (Mali)
Tigle Gizaw Belachew (Ethiopia)
Thomas Kusosa (Zimbabwe)
Rodrigue Menye Mpele (Cameroon)
Jospin Luckner Malonga (Central African Republic)
Abdoulaye Sylla (Guinea)
Clemence Kanduku (Malawi)
Kwasi Brobbey (Ghana)
Frank John Komba (Tanzania)
Aymen Ismail (Tunisia)
Eric Ayimavo (Benin)
Youssef Wahid Elbosaty (Egypt)
Adia Cisse (Senegal)

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter finals along with the two best 3rd placed teams.

Tiebreakers

Teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 71):^{[citation needed]}

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 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;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots.

All times are in WAT (UTC+1).^[10]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Cameroon	3	3	0	6	1	+5	9
2	Uganda	3	2	1	4	2	+2	6
3	Mauritania (H)	3	1	2	3	3	0	3
4	Mozambique	3	0	3	1	8	−7	0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

14 February 2021