2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations qualification

2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations qualification
Tournament details
Host countries	Tunisia (North Zone); Senegal (West A Zone); Niger (West B Zone); Equatorial Guinea (Central Zone); Tanzania (Central-East Zone); Mauritius (South Zone)
Dates	19 July – 18 September 2018
Teams	49 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	78
Goals scored	279 (3.58 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mintesnot Wakjira; (8 goals)

The 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations qualification was a men's under-17 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.

Players born 1 January 2002 or later were eligible to participate in the competition. A total of eight teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Tanzania who qualified automatically as hosts.[1]

Teams

In July 2017, the Confederation of African Football decided that the qualifying competition should be split into regional competitions.[2] To qualify, 49 of the 54 CAF members entered the qualifying tournament of their zone, including the hosts Tanzania, which also participated in qualification despite automatically qualified for the final tournament.[3]

Apart from the hosts, each of the six zones received one spot in the final tournament, and the zone of the defending champions received an additional spot. Since Mali won the 2017 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations, West A Zone received two spots.[4]

Zone	Spots	Teams entering qualification	Did not enter
North Zone (UNAF)	1 spot	Algeria Libya Morocco Tunisia (H)	Egypt
West A Zone (WAFU-UFOA A)	2 spots	Cape Verde Gambia Guinea Guinea-Bissau Liberia Mali Mauritania Senegal (H) Sierra Leone
West B Zone (WAFU-UFOA B)	1 spot	Benin Burkina Faso Ghana Ivory Coast Niger (H) Nigeria Togo
Central Zone (UNIFFAC)	1 spot	Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Congo DR Congo Equatorial Guinea (H) São Tomé and Príncipe	Gabon (withdrew)[5]
Central-East Zone (CECAFA)	1 spot + hosts	Burundi Djibouti Ethiopia Kenya Rwanda Somalia South Sudan Sudan Tanzania (H, Q) Uganda	Eritrea
South Zone (COSAFA)	1 spot	Angola Botswana Lesotho Malawi Mauritius (H) Mozambique Namibia Seychelles South Africa Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) Zambia Zimbabwe	Comoros Madagascar

Notes

Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
(H): Qualifying tournament hosts
(Q): Automatically qualified for final tournament regardless of qualification results

Format

The qualification format is determined by each zone (Regulations Article 13).[6]

In case any qualification ties are played on a home-and-away two-legged basis: If the aggregate score is tied after the second leg, the away goals rule is applied, and if still tied, the penalty shoot-out (no extra time) is used to determine the winner.
In case any qualification groups are played on a round-robin basis: Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point 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:[6]

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.

In case any qualification matches are played on a knockout basis: The penalty shoot-out (no extra time) is used to decide the winner if necessary.

Schedule

The schedule of each qualifying zone is as follows.

Zone	Group stage	Knockout stage
South Zone	19–25 July 2018	27–29 July 2018
Central Zone	3–8 August 2018	10–12 August 2018
Central-East Zone	11–22 August 2018	24–26 August 2018
North Zone	20–28 August 2018	—
West B Zone	2–9 September 2018	12–15 September 2018
West A Zone	9–13 September 2018	16–18 September 2018

North Zone

Tunisia hosted the 2018 UNAF U-17 Tournament, the 15th edition of the UNAF U-17 Tournament under the auspices of the UNAF, which also served as a qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations, between 20–28 August 2018.[7] The matches were played at Monastir (Stade Mustapha Ben Jannet) and Sousse (Stade Olympique de Sousse).

The draw for the fixtures was held on 14 May 2018.[8] The four teams were placed in one group, with the winner qualifying for the final tournament.

All times are local, CET (UTC+1).

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco	3	3	0	0	7	2	+5	9	2019 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations
2	Algeria	3	1	1	1	5	6	−1	4
3	Tunisia (H)	3	1	0	2	1	3	−2	3
4	Libya	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1

Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group tiebreakers
(H) Host.

20 August 2018