The 2025 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the 2025 U20 AFCON for short and as the 2025 TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, was the 18th edition (25th if editions of the tournament without hosts are included) of the biennial African international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The four semi-finalists also qualified as the CAF representatives for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.
Senegal were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the quarter-finals in a penalty shoot-out against Nigeria.
Qualification
Player eligibility Players born 1 January 2005 or later were eligible to participate in the competition.
Qualified teams The following 13 teams qualified for the tournament:
Team Zone Date of qualificationAppearanceLast appearance Previous best performance North Zone 6th 2021 (1997) (hosts) 13th 2023 (1991, 2003, 2013)3rd2023 (2021, 2023) West A Zone 7th 2023 (2023) 1st None West B Zone 13th 2021 (1993, 1999, 2009, 2021) 13th 2023 (2005, 2011, 2015) Central Zone 2nd 2013 (2013) 3rd 2023 (2021) Central-East Zone 1st None 2nd 2021 (2021) South Zone 9th 2019 (1997) 9th 2023 (2017)
Draw The draw procedure was announced on 10 February 2025. The 13 teams were drawn into one group of five teams and two groups of four teams. Teams are seeded according to their performance in the 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations. Hosts at the time of the draw Ivory Coast were automatically assigned to Position A1 in the draw, later replaced by Egypt. Previous edition winners Senegal were assigned to Position C1 and third place Nigeria were assigned to Position B1. The 3 qualified teams that also participated in the last edition, Congo, Egypt (later replaced by Tunisia), and Zambia, were seeded in Pot 1. The rest of the field were placed in Pot 2 to be drawn into the remaining positions.
Pot 1Pot 2
Venues The host country for the final stage of the edition was decided at the annual 2024 CAF Executive Committee meeting and CAF Awards in Marrakesh, Morocco on 16 December 2024, with CAF appointing Ivory Coast as hosts.
On 26 March 2025, it was announced that Ivory Coast had withdrawn as hosts, also forfeiting their automatic qualification spot. The new host country was not immediately announced.
On 27 March 2025, it was announced that Egypt would replace Ivory Coast as hosts. Egypt had previously submitted a bid to host during the initial bidding process. The opening match would also be pushed back one day to 27 April.
CairoIsmailiaSuezCairo International Stadium30 June StadiumSuez Canal StadiumSuez StadiumCapacity: 75,000Capacity: 30,000Capacity: 22,000Capacity: 27,000 Squads
Group stage
Tiebreakers Teams were ranked according to the three points for a win system (3 points for a win, 1 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: 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 were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, if two teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are applied exclusively to these two teams; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Drawing of lots.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Ranking of third-placed teams The ranking of the third-placed teams was determined after removing the results of the team ranked fifth in Group A, which was Tanzania.
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Knockout stage In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-outs are used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 75).
Bracket
Quarter-finals Winners qualify for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Semi-finals
Third place match
Final
Tournament rankings Ranking criteriaFor teams eliminated in the same knockout round, the following criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the final rankings: Goal difference in round eliminated; Goals scored in round eliminated; If teams eliminated in the semi-finals are tied, the above criteria are reapplied for the previous knockout round, with this process repeated once more should two semi-finalists remain tied; Points in group stage; Goal difference in group stage; Goals scored in group stage; Disciplinary points.
For teams eliminated in the group stage, the following criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the final rankings Position in group; Points; Goal difference; Goals scored; Disciplinary points.
| colspan="11"| Eliminated in the quarter-finals
| colspan="11"| Eliminated in the group stage
Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup The following teams from CAF qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.
Team Qualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup1 12 May 2025 13 (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1999, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2019, 2023) 3 (1977, 1997, 2005) 8 (1981, 1991, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013) 4 (1997, 2009, 2017, 2019) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Notes
See also 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations
References