The 2025 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the 2025 U20 AFCON or 2025 AFCON U20 for short and as the 2025 TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, is 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 will also qualify as the CAF representatives for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.
Senegal are the defending champions.
Qualification
Player eligibility
Players born 1 January 2005 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.
Qualified teams
The following 12 teams qualified for the tournament:
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. 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, and Zambia) were seeded in Pot 1. The rest of the field were placed in Pot 2 to be drawn into the remaining positions.
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On 26 March 2025, it was announced that Ivory Coast had withdrawn as hosts, also forfeiting their automatic qualification spot.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.
Group stage
Tiebreakers
Teams will be 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
Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-outs are used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 75).
Bracket
Quarter-finals
Winners qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Semi-finals
Third place match
Final
Tournament rankings
Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup
The following teams from CAF qualified for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile.
Notes
See also
- 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations
References
