By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
All is set for the final draw for the TotalEnergies CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Morocco 2025 which will take place on Thursday, 13 February 13, 2025 in Cairo, Egypt.
This is even as multiple FIFA U-17 World Cup champions Nigeria have been excluded from the final draw no thanks to the country’s failure to qualify from the West African Football Union WAFU B Zonal competition last year.
Prompt News reports that the final draw will be broadcast live on CAF TV, while former Mali international Adama Coulibaly and ex-Senegal star Souleymane Camara will act as draw assistants.
The expanded tournament will see 16 teams compete from March 30 to April 19 2025, with a record 10 African nations to qualify for the 48-team 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup that will be staged in Qatar from November 5 to 27, 2025.
Teams that qualified for the TotalEnergies CAF Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2025 are:
Morocco (host)
Angola
Burkina Faso
Cote d’Ivoire
Egypt
Gambia
Mali
Senegal
Somalia
South Africa
Tanzania
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia.
Also, two qualifiers will emerge from UNIFFAC 1 and UNIFFAC 2 which will be determined with the qualification tournament still to be played.
Meanwhile, CAF Competitions Department has said that teams will be divided into four Groups (A, B, C and D), each consisting of four teams. Morocco, as the host country, is automatically preassigned to position A1 in Group A.
The remainder of the seeds for each group have been determined via the final placings in the TotalEnergies CAF Under-17 AFCON, Algeria 2023.
Holders Senegal take up position C1, Burkina Faso (third in 2023) are in position B1 and Mali (fourth in 2023) take position D1.
The top two teams in each group qualify for the quarter-finals, and the 2025 FIFA World Cup, before the competition continues in a knockout format.
The remaining two qualification places for African nations at the FIFA World Cup will be decided via play-off matches between the teams that finish third in their groups.
It also said the tournament procedures will apply in the draw, which will be made using four separate pots. The other 12 teams outside of the four seeded sides will be in Pot 1:
Pot 1: Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gambia, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, UNIFFAC 1, UNIFFAC 2, Zambia
Pot 2: Positions A2, B2, C2 & D2
Pot 3: Positions A3, B3, C3 & D3
Pot 4: Positions A4, B4, C4 & D4
The teams will be drawn to the positions A2, B2, C2, D2, A3, B3, C3, D3, A4, B4, C4, & D4.
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