The 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes or 2025 U17 AFCON for short, was the 15th edition (20th if editions without hosts are included) of the biennial African youth football tournament organized by Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 17 and below.
Morocco was chosen as the host of this edition on 16 December 2024 at the annual CAF Executive Committee meeting along the 2024 CAF Awards ceremony in Marrakesh, Morocco where CAF appointed the country as host. which it organised from 30 March to 19 April. The top 10 teams qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar as the CAF representatives.
It was the first U-17 Africa Cup of Nations to feature 16 teams. Senegal entered as the defending champions but were eliminated in the quarter-finals. Morocco won the tournament, claiming their first U-17 Africa Cup of Nations title.
Qualification
Player eligibility Players born on 1 January 2008 or later were eligible to participate in this tournament edition.
Qualified teams The following teams qualified for the tournament.
Team Zone Date of qualificationAppearance Last appearance Previous best performance North Zone 4th 2011 (1997) (hosts) 4th 2023 (2023) 4th 2013 (2013) West A Zone 10th 2023 (2015, 2017) 4th 2023 (2023) 5th 2011 (2005, 2009) West B Zone 8th 2023 (2011) 6th 2015 (2013) Central Zone 9th 2023 (2003, 2019) 1st None Central-East Zone 3rd 2019 (2017, 2019) 2nd 2019 (2019) 2nd 2023 (2023) South Zone 5th 2019 (2019) 3rd 2023 (2015, 2023) 5th 2023 (2015)
Match officials
Venues The host country for the final tournament is Morocco, appointed during the General Assembly held in Marrakech, Morocco on 16 December 2024.
The Royal Moroccan Football Federation choose four venues in four cities across the host nation Morocco: Casablanca, El Jadida, Mohammedia and Berrechid.
Casablanca El Jadida Mohammedia Berrechid Larbi Zaouli Stadium Ben M'Hamed El Abdi Stadium El Bachir Stadium Berrechid Municipal Stadium Capacity: 18,600 Capacity: 15,000 Capacity: 10,000 Capacity: 5,000
Squads
The 16 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 21 players with an option of up to 5 more additional players, including three goalkeepers. Only players born on or after 1 January 2008 are eligible to be registered in these squads.
Draw The draw procedure was announced on 10 February 2025, with the draw to occur on 13 February 2025 in Cairo, Egypt. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Teams are seeded according to their performance in the 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations. Hosts Morocco were automatically assigned to Position A1 in the draw. Previous edition winners Senegal were assigned to Position C1 with Burkina Faso and Mali assigned to positions B1 and D1 respectively. The rest of the field were placed in Pot 1 to be drawn into the remaining positions.
Seeded Pot 1 (A1) (C1)
(D1)
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 were 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
Group D
FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off Winners qualified for 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Knockout stage In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-outs are used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 75).
Bracket
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third place match
Final
Tournament rankings
Ranking criteriaFor teams eliminated in the same knockout round, the following criteria are 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 still tied, the above criteria are reapplied for the quarter-finals round; 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 are 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
| colspan="11"| Played play-off matches
Goalscorers
Awards The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: Golden BootMost Valuable PlayerBest GoalkeeperCoach of the TournamentFair Play award Asharaf Tapsoba Alynho Haïdara Abdellah Ouazane Chouaib Bellaarouch Nabil Baha
Qualified teams for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup The following teams from CAF qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar. TeamQualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA U-17 World Cup15 (1999, 2001, 2009, 2011, 2023)6 (1997, 1999, 2001, 2015, 2017, 2023)2 (2013, 2023)1 (2015)0 (debut)4 (1987, 2005, 2011, 2013)2 (2019, 2023)3 (1993, 2007, 2013)2 (1987, 1997)0 (debut) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Notes
See also 2025 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations
References