The 2015 African U-17 Championship was the 11th edition of the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 17 and below. The tournament took place in Niamey, Niger, and was originally scheduled to be held between 2 and 16 May.[1] However, the date of the opening match was pushed forward to 15 February, with the tournament scheduled to conclude with the final on 1 March.[2]
The qualifiers were played between June and September 2014. At the end of the qualification phase, seven teams joined the hosts Niger.
Player eligibility
During CAF Executive Committee meetings held on 21 and 22 September 2013, the CAF Medical Committee was instructed to continue the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to determine the ages of players and consequently their eligibility to participate in the qualifying stages of the tournament. It was also directed to ensure the authenticity of the process as well as the identity of the players involved.[4]
Team Ghana was disqualified on 26 October, after medical test provided by the African Confederation after their first leg play off victory against Cameroon found that one of their players failed age eligibility confirmations. Ghana appealed but failed.[5]
The draw for the final tournament was held on 21 December 2014, 11:00 UTC+02:00, at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[7] Niger and Ivory Coast were seeded and placed into Groups A and B respectively.[8]
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:[3]
Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
In the knockout stages, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, kicks from the penalty mark are used to determine the winner (no extra time shall be played).[3]
Niger
Mali (1st title)
South Africa
Guinea
Nigeria
