en 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

2023 CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations
كأس أمم إفريقيا تحت 20 سنة 2023
Tournament details
Host country	Egypt
Dates	19 February – 11 March
Teams	12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Senegal (1st title)
Runners-up	Gambia
Third place	Nigeria
Fourth place	Tunisia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	54 (2.08 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Pape Diop (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Lamine Camara
Best goalkeeper	Landing Badji
Fair play award	Nigeria
	← 2021 2025 →

The 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations (Arabic: كأس أمم إفريقيا تحت 20 سنة 2023, French: Coupe d'Afrique des nations de football des moins de 20 ans 2023), known as the 2023 U20 AFCON or 2023 AFCON U20 for short and as the 2023 TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, was the 17th edition (24th if editions of the tournament without hosts are included) of the biennial African international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football. Egypt hosted the tournament, which took place from 19 February to 11 March 2023. The tournament involved 12 teams, Senegal won the tournament for the first time, defeating Gambia in the final and did not concede a single goal the entire tournament.^[5]

This edition of the tournament also doubles as the African qualifiers for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina where teams who reached the semi-finals stage qualified automatically and also for the 2023 African Games in Accra, Ghana where teams who reached the quarter-finals stage qualified automatically too.

Ghana were the defending champions following their 4th title win in 2021, but failed to qualify for this edition after losing to Nigeria in the WAFU sub-regional qualification tournament.^[6]^[7]

Qualification

Player eligibility

Players born 1 January 2003 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.

Qualified teams

The following 12 teams qualified for the group stages:

Team	Zone	Date of qualification	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Egypt (hosts)	North Zone	16 May 2021	12th	2017	Champions (1991, 2003, 2013)
Tunisia	North Zone	24 October 2022	2nd	2021	Fourth place (2021)
Benin	West B Zone	17 May 2022	3rd	2013	Third place (2005)
Nigeria	West B Zone	17 May 2022	12th	2019	Champions (2005, 2011, 2015)
Senegal	West A Zone	9 September 2022	6th	2019	Runners-up (2015, 2017, 2019)
Gambia	West A Zone	9 September 2022	4th	2021	Third place (2007, 2021)
Central African Republic	Central Zone	14 December 2022	2nd	2021	Quarter-finals (2021)
Congo	Central Zone	14 December 2022	3rd	2015	Champions (2007)
Uganda	Central-East Zone	8 November 2022	2nd	2021	Runners-up (2021)
South Sudan	Central-East Zone	8 November 2022	1st	None	Debut
Mozambique	South Zone	14 October 2022	2nd	2021	Group stage (2021)
Zambia	South Zone	14 October 2022	8th	2017	Champions (2017)

Venues

Cairo Alexandria Ismailia		Cairo	Ismailia
		Cairo International Stadium	Suez Canal Stadium
		Capacity: 75,000	Capacity: 22,000

		Alexandria
		Haras El Hodoud Stadium^[8]	Alexandria Stadium
		Capacity: 22,000	Capacity: 20,000

Match officials

On 18 February 2023, CAF announced a total of 16 referees (including 2 women), 18 assistant referees (including 4 women) and 6 video assistant referees (VAR) appointed for the tournament.^[9]^[10]

Referees

Issa Mouhamed
Hamidou Diero
Mohamed Athoumani
Yannick Kabanga Malala
Clement Franklin Kpan
Mohamed Diraneh Guedi
Mahmoud Ahmed Nagy
Lamin Jammeh
Ahmed Abdulrazg
Sory Ibrahima Keita
Jallal Jayed
Bouchra Karboubi
Omar Abdulkadir Artan
Jean-Claude Ishimwe
El Hadj Amadou Sy
Akhona Makalima

Assistant referees

Hamza Bouzit
Pascal Ndimunzigo
Styven Moutsassi
Yara Atef
Mohamed Abouzid Sami Halhal
Yehualashet Fasika Biru
Roland Nii Dodoo
Joel Wonka Doe
Dimbiniaina Andriatianarivelo
Fanta Idrissa Kone
Fatiha Jermoumi
Soukaina Hamdi
Abdoul Aziz Moctar Saley
Igho Hope
Shaji Padayachy
Omer Hamid Mohamed Ahmed
Jonathan Ahonto Koffi
Mohamed Bakir

Video assistant referees

Elvis Noupoue
Mahmoud Ashour
Ahmed Elghandour
Daniel Nii Laryea
Dahane Beida
El Hadj Malick Samba

Squads

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held at CAF's headquarters in Cairo, Egypt on 23 December 2022 at 19:00 EST (UTC+2).^[11] The 12 teams were drawn into 3 groups of 4 with the teams seeded according to their performance in the previous edition of the tournament. Hosts Egypt automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Egypt (hosts) Uganda (2) Gambia (3)	Tunisia (4) Central African Republic (8) Mozambique (11)	Nigeria (NR) Zambia (NR) Senegal (NR) Benin (NR) Congo (NR) South Sudan (NR)

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 for a win, 1 for a draw and none for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 13).^[12]

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 EST (UTC+2).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Senegal	3	3	0	0	8	0	+8	9	Knockout stage
2	Nigeria	3	2	0	1	3	1	+2	6	Knockout stage
3	Egypt (H)	3	0	1	2	0	5	−5	1^[a]
4	Mozambique	3	0	1	2	0	5	−5	1^[a]

Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Notes:

^ ^a ^b Drawing of lots: Egypt 1; Mozambique 2

19 February 2023