International football competition
The 2017 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations, officially known as the Total U-17 Africa Cup Of Nations, Gabon 2017, was the 12th edition of the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations (17th 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.
The top four teams qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India.
Host selection.
The tournament was originally set to take place in Madagascar between 2–16 April 2017. However, the CAF Executive Committee decided on 12 January 2017 to withdraw the hosting rights from Madagascar following the reports of the CAF inspection teams.
On 3 February 2017, Gabon were selected as the new hosts, and the tournament will now be played from 14 to 28 May 2017 (originally from 21 May to 4 June 2017).
Qualification.
The qualifiers were played between June and October 2016. At the end of the qualification phase, seven teams joined the hosts Gabon.
Player eligibility.
Players born 1 January 2000 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.
Qualified teams.
Gabon replaced Madagascar due to their selection as the new hosts. Moreover, Tanzania replaced Congo due to a Congolese player failing to turn up for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging test. Mali were cleared to compete after their suspension was lifted by FIFA on 28 April 2017.
"Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of final tournament in 1995."
Venues.
The two venues were confirmed in March 2017.
Original venues of Madagascar before hosts were withdrawn.
Draw.
The draw for the tournament took place on 24 October 2016, 11:00 local time () at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo.
The teams were seeded based on the results of the last edition (final tournament and qualifiers).
Squads.
Each squad can contain a maximum of 21 players.
Match officials.
A total of 14 referees and 15 assistant referees were selected for the tournament.
Group stage.
The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
All times are local, WAT ().
Knockout stage.
In the knockout stages, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, kicks from the penalty mark are used to determine the winner (no extra time shall be played).
Goalscorers.
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Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 World Cup.
The following four teams from CAF qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
1 Bold indicates champion for that year. "Italic" indicates host for that year.
References.
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