1981 African Youth Championship
Tournament details
Dates8 June 1980 – 24 April 1981
Teams14 (from 1 confederation)
Final positions
Champions Egypt (1st title)
Runners-up Cameroon
Third place Nigeria
Fourth place Algeria
Tournament statistics
Matches played10
Goals scored49 (4.9 per match)
← 1979
1983 →

The 1981 African Youth Championship was the 3rd edition of the biennial African qualification tournament for the FIFA World Youth Championship which was contested on a home-and-away two-legged basis.

Egypt beat Cameroon 3–1 on aggregate in the final to claim their inaugural title, although both teams qualified for the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia.

Teams

The following teams entered this edition of the tournament and played at least a match:

Preliminary round

The first leg was played on 8 June and the second leg was held on 22 June 1980. The winners advanced to the first round.

The teams who received byes to the first round are Guinea, Cameroon, Tunisia, Morocco, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Algeria, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Kenya.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Equatorial Guinea  4–3  Gabon 2–0 2–3
Togo  w/o 1  Benin
Zimbabwe  w/o 1  Malawi

1 Malawi and Benin withdrew.

First round

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Guinea  2–2 (a)  Equatorial Guinea 2–1 0–1
Cameroon  5–1  Togo 3–0 2–1
Tunisia  1–1
(6–5 pen.) 		 Morocco 0–1 1–0 (a.e.t.)
Zimbabwe  2–1  Ethiopia 0–0 2–1
Mauritania  1–6  Algeria 1–3 0–3
Nigeria  w/o 1  Ivory Coast
Egypt  w/o 1  Uganda
Central African Republic  w/o 1  Kenya

1 Ivory Coast, Uganda and Kenya withdrew.

Second round

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Cameroon  3–1  Equatorial Guinea 3–0 0–1
Nigeria  5–4  Tunisia 4–0 1–4
Zimbabwe  1–3  Egypt 1–1 0–2
Central African Republic  w/o 1  Algeria 4–1 n/p

1 Civil unrest and political turmoil in the Central African Republic forced their team to withdraw after the first leg, leading to the scrapping of the second leg and advancing Algeria to the semi-finals.

Semi-finals

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Nigeria  2–4  Cameroon 2–3 0–1
Algeria  w/o1  Egypt

1 Algeria withdrew.

Final

The first leg was played on 12 April and the second leg on 24 April 1981.

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Cameroon  1–3  Egypt 1–1 0–2


 1981 African Youth Championship winners 

Egypt
First/Inaugural title

Qualification to the World Youth Championship

The two best performing teams qualified for the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship.

External links

African Youth Championship, African U-20 Championship and U-20 Africa Cup of Nations
Categories