By: Emmanuel Yaw Nkansah
Another tournament without the defending champions. Not because of political reasons this time, but because the defending champions were not good enough to qualify for the tournament.
The 2023 Total Energies U-20 African Cup of Nations is set to kicks off on Sunday, 19th February 2023, and Ghana, the defending champions, will not be defending their title as they failed to make it to this year’s edition. This could be considered as good fortune for Ghanaian football lovers as they would be spared the agony of seeing yet another national team go and underperform in a major tournament.
The failure of the defending champions to qualify aside, 12 national youth teams will slug it out in pursuit of the title to mark their credentials as Africa’s best U-20 side.
This year’s edition of the biennial tournament, which also doubles as the African qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, will be hosted by Egypt. The three host cities and stadia for the tournament are, the 75,000 capacity Cairo International Stadium in Cairo. The 20,000 capacity Alexandria Stadium and the 22,000 capacity Suez Canal Stadium in Alexandria and Ismailia respectively.
The U-20 Afcon will begin on Sunday, February 19, 2023, with Egypt taking on Mozambique in the tournament opener at 2:00 GMT, and end on March 11, 2023.
Seven-time winners Nigeria, will be looking to claim an eighth title to cement their place as Africa’s best youth footballing nation.
The road to an eighth title would not be easy however, as they will face stern opposition from four-time winners Egypt, who also are in Group A and would be seeking to claim a fifth title. Senegal and Mozambique will also be looking to make it through the group into the knockout phase as they also look to win their first ever U-20 Afcon title.
Group B features Uganda, debutants South Sudan, Congo and the Central African Republic while Group C has Tunisia, Gambia, Benin, and Zambia. Only two of these eight nations (Congo and Zambia) have claimed U-20 Afcon trophy and those yet to win it certainly will be harboring ambitions to lay hands on the silverware by the end of the tournament. Should the title elude them, a place in the final four could be a decent consolation as it gets them a place in the FIFA U-20 World Cup which will be held in Indonesia later this year.
With the U-20 Afcon trophy and a place in the FIFA U-20 World Cup to play for, there is much at stake in the 17th edition (24th if tournaments without hosts are included) of the biennial African youth tournament. Nigeria, Egypt, Zambia, and Congo will be looking to add yet another title to what they already have while the trophyless nations will be hoping that this is their year. Debutants, South Sudan, will also be looking to make a significant splash in their maiden tournament appearance.
The title, or a place in the semifinals to qualify for the World Cup, it sure is going to be an exciting tournament to behold and you can catch all the action from the 2023 U-20 African Cup of Nations live on GTV Sports+.