The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has released the full schedule of the U17 African Cup of Nations slated to hold between April 29 and May 19, 2023, in Algeria.
Among the teams that qualified for the competition include Nigeria’s Flying Eagles, grouped with Zambia, Morocco and South Africa.
The opening match will see hosts Algeria play Somalia on April 29 at the majestic Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers.
The match will take place at 8:00 pm West African Time (WAT).
Three stadiums will be used for competition: Nelson Mandela in Algiers, Chahid Hamlaoui in Constantine and 19-Mai-1956 in Annaba.
For the first time, the Under-17 AFCON will feature 12 nations.
The decision to increase the number of participants is in line with CAF’s objective of encouraging participation and offering more playing opportunities to young people, News About Nigeria reports.
The AFCON has been played every two years, since 1995. So far, the competition has seen 13 seasons, with this year making it 14.
The tournament last came live in 2019 and was supposed to hold in 2021, but was impaired by Covid-19.
Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroun, Gambia and Mali, remain the countries with the most number of cups from the tournament, each winning two times.
Cameroun won the last competition in 2019, while Nigeria’s last gold medal in the cup was in 2007, after claiming it for the first time in 2001.
The full group stage fixtures are presented below.
20233 U17 AFCON Groups:
A: Algeria, Senegal, Congo, Somalia
B: Nigeria, Zambia, Morocco, South Africa
C: Cameroon, Mali, South Sudan, Burkina Faso.
