Qualifications for the U-20 African Cup of Nations

The Orange Africa Cup of Nations is an annual soccer event. The event occurs in a different African country every year. The 2013 Cup, for example, is scheduled to take place in Libya. Countries must nominate their teams to participate in the qualifying rounds before the actual game. After that point, a number of criteria determine the qualifications of each team to advance to the final game.

  1. Zones

    • The qualifiers for the cup are divided into zones and groups. The African soccer teams are divided into six zones. The North Zone includes the teams from Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. The West A Zone is composed of soccer teams from Guinea, Cape Verde, Gambia, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Sierra Leone. The West B Zone includes the Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Ghana. The Center Zone is make up of teams from the Central African Republic, the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Cameroon. The Center-East Zone offers teams from Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Rwanda. The final zone, the South Zone, includes South Africa, Angola, Comores, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

    Groups

    • These zones are then placed in 11 groups, from A to I. Group A includes Cape Verde, Liberia, Mali and Zimbabwe. Group B includes Ethiopia, Guinea, Nigeria and Madagascar. Group C includes Libya, Zambia, Mozambique and Comores. Group D includes Algeria, Morocco, Tanzania and the Central African Republic. Group E includes Cameroon, Mauritius, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Group F includes Gambia, Namibia and Burkina Faso. Group G includes Egypt, Sierra Leone, Niger and South Africa. Group H includes Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Benin and Burundi, while Group I includes Sudan, Swaziland, Congo and Ghana.

    Qualifying

    • There are three criteria for qualifying for each annual African Cup of Nations game. The first teams to qualify for the cup are the teams finishing in first place in each group. The second criterion places the team finishing second place within Group K. The third team qualifying for the game are the two best second-place teams from the other 10 groups.

    Determining Second Place

    • The second-best team qualification is determined by comparing results with the first-place and third-place teams in each of the groups. If a team from Group K is taken out of the running, then only the first-place team from this group will advance to the cup. The criteria consists of highest number of points and goals scored, a better goal difference and a playoff match.