2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

The 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations (Arabic: كأس أمم إفريقيا تحت 20 سنة 2023, French: Coupe d'Afrique des nations de football des moins de 20 ans 2023), known as the 2023 U20 AFCON or 2023 AFCON U20 for short and as the 2023 TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, was the 17th edition (24th if editions of the tournament without hosts are included) of the biennial African international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football. Egypt hosted the tournament, which took place from 19 February to 11 March 2023. The tournament involved 12 teams, Senegal won the tournament for the first time, defeating Gambia in the final and did not concede a single goal the entire tournament.

This edition of the tournament also doubles as the African qualifiers for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina where teams who reached the semi-finals stage qualified automatically and also for the 2023 African Games in Accra, Ghana where teams who reached the quarter-finals stage qualified automatically too.

Ghana were the defending champions following their 4th title win in 2021, but failed to qualify for this edition after losing to Nigeria in the WAFU sub-regional qualification tournament.

Players born 1 January 2003 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.

The following 12 teams qualified for the group stages:

On 18 February 2023, CAF announced a total of 16 referees (including 2 women), 18 assistant referees (including 4 women) and 6 video assistant referees (VAR) appointed for the tournament.

Referees

Assistant referees

Video assistant referees

The draw for the group stage was held at CAF's headquarters in Cairo, Egypt on 23 December 2022 at 19:00 EST (UTC+2). The 12 teams were drawn into 3 groups of 4 with the teams seeded according to their performance in the previous edition of the tournament. Hosts Egypt automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.

The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals along with the two best 3rd-placed teams.

Teams are ranked according to points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw and none for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 13).

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. 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;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Drawing of lots.

All times are in EST (UTC+2).

Winners qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

There were 54 goals scored in 26 matches, for an average of 2.08 goals per match.

5 goals

4 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

The following teams from CAF qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina.

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

The following teams qualified for the 2023 African Games men's football tournament in Accra, Ghana.

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

• 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations