U-17 Africa Cup of Nations

The U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, also referred to as TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is a biennial soccer tournament for teams consisting of players under 17 years of age. The first edition of the tournament was held in 1985 under the name African U-16 Qualifying for World Cup, but it became known as U-17 AFCON from 2015 onwards. Additional to making it a tournament to develop young footballers, it is also used as the qualifying process for the U-17 FIFA World Cup.

The tournament is usually played by twelve teams, who fight for the honor of representing their continent in the category’s World Cup. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) draws all twelve teams into three groups of four, where each squad faces its rivals once.

The top two teams from each group reach the final stage, being joined in the KO round by the two best third-placed squads. The eight teams then are seeded and proceed to play one-off matches, with those reaching the semifinals being the teams that get to play in the World Cup. In the event of a draw, penalties are taken to determine the winner.