The 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations qualification was a men's under-20 football competition which decided the participating teams for the

2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations The 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations was the 16th edition of the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (23rd edition if tournaments without hosts are included), the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Fo ...

. Players born 1 January 2001 or later were eligible to participate in the competition. A total of twelve teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Mauritania who qualified automatically as hosts.

Teams

47 of the 54 CAF members entered the qualifying tournament of their zone, including the hosts Mauritania, which also participated in qualification despite automatically qualified for the final tournament. This was the first edition in Africa U-20 Cup of Nations to have expanded to 12 teams instead of eight. Each of the six zones received two spots in the final tournament. ;Notes *Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament. *(H): Qualifying tournament hosts *(Q): Automatically qualified for final tournament regardless of qualification results

Schedule

The qualifying competition was split into regional competitions, with the teams entering the qualifying tournament of their zone. The final arrangements of the zonal qualifiers were decided later due to the delays caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. The schedule of each qualifying zone was as follows.

North Zone

Tunisia hosted the 2020 UNAF U-20 Tournament, which also served as the qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations, between 15 and 27 December 2020. The matches were played at

Radès Radès ( ar, رادس) is a harbour city in Ben Arous Governorate, Tunisia. Situated south-east of the capital Tunis, some consider it a Tunis suburb, and parts of the harbor installations of Tunis are located in Radès. Rades is divided into ...

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Stade Olympique de Radès Stade Olympique Hamadi Agrebi, opened as Stade 7 November, is a multi-purpose stadium in Radès, Tunis, Tunisia about 10 kilometers south-east of downtown Tunis, in the center of the Olympic City. It is currently used mostly for football matches ...

) and

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Stade El Menzah Stade El Menzah is a multi-purpose stadium, located in the north of Tunis, Tunisia. History Stade Vélodrome is the historical stadium that preceded Stade El Menzah. It was built in 1927 in the same location and became the stadium of US Tunis a ...

). The draw for the fixtures was held on 30 November 2020. The five teams were placed in one group, with the winners and the runners-up qualifying for the final tournament. All times are local, CET (

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West A Zone

Senegal hosted the WAFU-UFOA Zone A U-20 Championship between 20 and 29 November 2020. The matches were played at

Thiès Thiès (; ar, ثيس, Ṯyass; Noon: ''Chess'') is the third largest city in Senegal with a population officially estimated at 320,000 in 2005. It lies east of Dakar on the N2 road and at the junction of railway lines to Dakar, Bamako and St- ...

( Stade Lat-Dior) and

Pikine Pikine is a city in the Pikine Department of the Dakar Region of Senegal. Lying to the east of Dakar city centre, at the 2013 Census it had a population of 1,170,791. The department includes the villages of Yeumbeul, Thiaroye, Mbao, and Keur ...

( Stade Al Djigo). All times are local, GMT (

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Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 6 November 2020. The seven teams were drawn into two groups of three and four teams. The winners and the runners-up of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Final

Winner qualified for

West B Zone

The WAFU-UFOA Zone B qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations were initially planned to be hosted by Burkina Faso, but were later shifted to Togo due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the matches scheduled to be played between 18 November–2 December. On 7 November, Togo announced that they would not be able to host the tournament due to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the country, with the outbreak located in the

Lomé Lomé is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437

area. On 17 November, it was announced that the regional qualifiers would now be played in Benin between 5 and 19 December. The draw was also announced on the same day. The matches were played at

Porto-Novo Porto-Novo ( Portuguese: "New Port", , ; yo, Àjàṣẹ́, ), also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe, is the capital of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people. Situated on an inlet of the Gulf of G ...

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Stade Charles de Gaulle Stade Charles de Gaulle is a multi-use stadium in Porto-Novo Porto-Novo ( Portuguese: "New Port", , ; yo, Àjàṣẹ́, ), also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe, is the capital of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a popu ...

) and

Cotonou Cotonou (; fon, Kútɔ̀nú) is a city in Benin. Its official population count was 679,012 inhabitants in 2012; however, over two million people live in the larger urban area. The urban area continues to expand, notably toward the west. The ci ...

( Stade René Pleven). All times are local,

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Group stage

The seven teams were drawn into two groups of three and four teams. The winners and the runners-up of each group advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for

Third place match

Final

Central Zone

The

UNIFFAC The Central African Football Federations' Union (french: Union des Fédérations de Football d'Afrique Centrale; pt, União das Federações Centroafricanas de Futebol; es, Unión de Federaciones de Fútbol de África Central), officially abbrevi ...

qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations were held in Equatorial Guinea between 15 and 22 December 2020. The matches were played at

Malabo Malabo ( , ; formerly Santa Isabel) is the capital of Equatorial Guinea and the province of Bioko Norte. It is located on the north coast of the island of Bioko, ( bvb, Etulá, and as ''Fernando Pó'' by the Europeans). In 2018, the city had ...

( Estadio de Malabo). All times are local,

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Group stage

The six teams were drawn into two groups of three teams. The winners of each group qualified for the

Group A

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Group B

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Final

Central-East Zone

The

CECAFA The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations ( sw, Baraza la Mashirikisho ya Mpira wa Miguu Afrika Mashariki na Kati, french: Conseil des Associations de Football d'Afrique de l'Est et Centrale, ar, مؤتمر جمعيات شر� ...

qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations were initially planned to be hosted by Sudan in October–November 2020 but were then later shifted and held in Tanzania between 22 November–2 December 2020. The matches were played at

Karatu Karatu is one of the seven districts in the Arusha Region of Tanzania. The District covers an area of . and has an max elevation of ..It is bordered by the Ngorongoro District to the north, the Meatu District to the west in Simiyu Region. The ...

(Black Rhino Academy) and

Arusha Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census). Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern b ...

( Sheikh Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium). All times are local,

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Group stage

All the 11 teams were drawn into 3 groups, 2 groups of 4 teams and 1 group of 3 teams. The winners of each group and the best runners-up advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Ranking of second-placed teams

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for

Third place match

Final

South Zone

The

COSAFA Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (french: Conseil des Associations de Football en Afrique Australe; pt, Conselho das Associações de Futebol da África Austral), officially abbreviated as COSAFA, is an association of the football ...

qualifiers for the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations were initially planned to be hosted by Mauritius, but were later shifted to South Africa after Mauritius withdrew as hosts due to the COVID-19 regulations. The matches were played at

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, S ...

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Wolfson Stadium The Wolfson Stadium is a sports stadium in KwaZakele, Ibhayi just outside Port Elizabeth in South Africa. The stadium is able to hold 10,000 people. and is occasionally used to host rugby union matches by the and Southern Kings and football ...

, Gelvandale Stadium and

Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is a soccer and rugby union stadium in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa, It hosted 2010 FIFA World Cup matches and the third place play off. It is the home of Chippa United Football Club and formerly of ...

). All times are local,

SAST South African Standard Time (SAST) is the time zone used by all of South Africa as well as Eswatini and Lesotho. The zone is two hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+02:00) and is the same as Central Africa Time. Daylight saving time is not observed in e ...

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UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...

Group stage

The group stage was played in 3 groups as a round-robin, where the group winners and the best runner up advanced to the semi-finals.

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Ranking of second-placed teams

Due to groups having a different number of teams, the results against the fourth-placed teams in four-team groups were not considered for this ranking.

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for

Third place match

Final

Qualified teams

The following 12 teams qualify for the final tournament. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Africa U-20 Cup of Nations qualification 2021 U-20 Championship qualification

Africa U-20 Cup of Nations qualification Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface are ...

Qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

November 2020 sports events in Africa December 2020 sports events in Africa Association football events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic