2011 CAF U-23 Championship

2011 CAF U-23 Championship
Tournament details
Host country  Morocco
Dates 26 November – 10 December
Teams 8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s) 2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions  Gabon (1st title)
Runners-up  Morocco
Third place  Egypt
Fourth place  Senegal
Tournament statistics
Matches played 16
Goals scored 35 (2.19 per match)
Top scorer(s) Abdelaziz Barrada
Raheem Lawal
(3 goals)

The 2011 CAF U-23 Championship was the first edition of the football tournament for under 23 players. It was originally scheduled to be hosted by Egypt from November 26 to December 10, 2011. However, less than two months prior to the start of the tournament, Egyptian authorities decided against hosting the competition because of security concerns.[1] On October 13, 2011, Morocco was chosen as the replacement to host the tournament.[2]

The tournament also doubles up as the qualifiers for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The top 3 placed teams qualified automatically for the 2012 Summer Olympics football tournament, while the 4th best placed team qualify for a play-off with an AFC counterpart.[3]

Contents

Qualified Teams

For more details on this topic, see 2011 CAF U-23 Championship qualification.

The Confederation of African Football chose to create a tournament and qualifying phase to decide which associations could represent Africa at the 2012 Olympic Games. Of CAF's 53 association nations, 39 agreed to participate in the qualifiers for the tournament.

To qualify for the tournament, participating nations had to overcome three two-legged qualifying stages.

Qualified teams:

Venues

Marrakech Tangiers
Stade de Marrakech Stade de Tanger
Capacity: 45,000 Capacity: 45,000

Draw

The draw for the tournament was held on 24 September 2011 during the CAF Executive Committee meeting in Cairo, Egypt.[4]

Squads

Main article: 2011 CAF U-23 Championship squads

Group Stage

All times given as local time (UTC)

If two or more teams tied in their points, the following tie-breaker is used[5]:

  1. Points in the matches between the concerned teams,
  2. Goal difference in the matches between the concerned teams,
  3. Number of goals in the matches between the concerned teams,
  4. Goal difference in all group matches,
  5. Number of goals in all group matches,
  6. Fair Play point (number of yellow and red cards),
  7. Drawing of lots.
Legend
Teams that advanced to the semi-finals

Group A

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Senegal 3 2 0 1 3 2 +1 6
 Morocco 3 2 0 1 2 1 +1 6
 Nigeria 3 1 0 2 5 4 +1 3
 Algeria 3 1 0 2 2 5 –3 3
26 November 2011
17:30
 Nigeria  0 – 1  Morocco Stade de Tanger
Referee: Sylvester Kirwa (Kenya)
Report Barrada  28' (pen.)
26 November 2011
20:30
 Algeria  1 – 0  Senegal Stade de Tanger
Referee: Néant Alioum (Cameroon)
Benaldjia  77' Report
29 November 2011
17:30
 Morocco  1 – 0  Algeria Stade de Tanger
Referee: Janny Sikazwe (Zambia)
Tighadouini  59' Report
29 November 2011
21:30
 Senegal  2 – 1  Nigeria Stade de Tanger
Referee: Slim Jedidi (Tunisia)
Mbodj  34'
Sané  42'		 Report Uchechi  49'
2 December 2011
19:00
 Nigeria  4 – 1  Algeria Stade de Marrakech
Referee: Bakary Papa Gassama (Gambia)
Lawal  47', 75', 85'
Uchechi  87'		 Bounedjah  42'
2 December 2011
19:00
 Morocco  0 – 1  Senegal Stade de Tanger
Referee: Hamada Nampiandraza (Madagascar)
Report Wade  31'

Group B

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
 Egypt 3 2 0 1 3 1 +2 6
 Gabon 3 1 1 1 4 3 +1 4
 Côte d'Ivoire 3 1 1 1 3 4 –1 4
 South Africa 3 0 2 1 2 4 –2 2
27 November 2011
17:30
 Egypt  1 – 0  Gabon Stade de Marrakech
Referee: Bakary Papa Gassama (Gambia)
Magdi  50' Report
27 November 2011
20:30
 South Africa  1 – 1  Côte d'Ivoire Stade de Marrakech
Referee: Bouchaib El Ahrach (Morocco)
Bhengu  21' Report Griffiths  81'
30 November 2011
17:30
 Gabon  1 – 1  South Africa Stade de Marrakech
Referee: Ali Ould Lemghaifry (Mauritania)
Lengoualama  80' Report Masango  40'
30 November 2011
20:30
 Côte d'Ivoire  1 – 0  Egypt Stade de Marrakech
Referee: Hamada Nampiandraza (Madagascar)
Koné  82' Report
3 December 2011
19:00
 Egypt  2 – 0  South Africa Stade de Marrakech
Referee: Janny Sikazwe (Zambia)
El Nenny  46'
Mohsen  63'		 Report
3 December 2011
19:00
 Gabon  3 – 1  Côte d'Ivoire Stade de Tanger
Referee: Slim Jedidi (Tunisia)
Ndong Mba  46', 49' (pen.)
Yacouya  78'		 Traoré  30'

Knockout stage

All times given as local time (UTC+1)

  Semi finals Final
6 December
  Senegal  0  
  Gabon (a.e.t.)  1  
 
10 December
      Gabon  2
    Morocco  1
Third place play-off
7 December 10 December
  Egypt  2   Senegal  0
  Morocco  3     Egypt  2

Semi-finals

6 December 2011
19:00
 Senegal  0 – 1 (a.e.t.)  Gabon Stade de Tanger
Referee: Janny Sikazwe (Zambia)
Report Poko  119'
7 December 2011
19:00
 Egypt  2 – 3  Morocco Stade de Marrakech
Referee: Néant Alioum (Cameroon)
Salah  36'
Sherwida  82'		 Report Barrada  1', 9'
Mokhtar  66'

Third place play-off

10 December 2011
14:30
 Senegal  0 – 2  Egypt Stade de Marrakech
Report Sherwida  32'
Gomaa  68'

Final

10 December 2011
17:30
 Gabon  2 – 1  Morocco Stade de Marrakech
Attendance: 15,000
Obiang  33'
Nono  40'		 Report Mokhtar  21'
 2011 CAF U-23 Championship Winners 

Gabon
First title

Best eleven

The team of the tournament with substitutes:[6]

Goalscorers

3 goals
2 goals
  • Ahmed Sherwida
  • Emmanuel Ndong Mba
1 goal
  • Mohamed El Nenny
  • Saleh Gomaa
  • Johan Diderot Lengoualama
  • Allen Nono
  • Landry Obiang Obiang
  • André Biyogo Poko
  • Lionel Yacouya

Criticisms

Some have questioned the need for the tournament and believe that the CAF-organised Under-23 football tournament, the 2011 All-Africa Games' football tournament should have been used as a qualifying tournament. The increase in number of national U-23 fixtures caused some domestic league schedules to be revised and some league games took place with weakened teams.[7]

There has been criticism from fans towards clubs who have not allowed their players to participate in the qualifying stages as the tournament is not featured on the FIFA Calendar whilst the Olympics tournament is. In effect this means that African nations can call on European-based players for the Olympic tournament who were not able to participate in qualifying due to club commitments.[8]

Qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics

See also

References

  1. ^ Egypt denied from staging Olympic qualifiers; FilGoal.com, October 10, 2011.
  2. ^ Morocco to host Olympic qualifying tournament; BBC, October 13, 2011.
  3. ^ "Egypt hosting Olympic qualifier". FIFA. http://www.fifa.com/mensolympic/news/newsid=1497288/index.html. Retrieved 23 August 2011. 
  4. ^ "Egypt to host CAF U-23 Championship serving as 2012 London Olympic qualifiers". cafonline.com (Confederation of African Football). 22 August 2011. http://www.cafonline.com/football/news/11059-egypt-to-host-caf-u-23-championship-serving-as-2012-london-olympic-qualifiers.html. 
  5. ^ "Regulations of the African U-23 Championship, Morocco 2011". CAF. http://www.cafonline.com/userfiles/file/Regulation/U-23%20Eng.pdf. Retrieved 30 November 2011.  (see art. 35.6)
  6. ^ "Best eleven CAF U-23 African Championship 2011". CAF Online. Confederation of African Football. 10 December 2011. http://www.cafonline.com/competition/caf-u-23-championship_2011/news/12337-best-eleven-caf-u-23-african-championship-2011.html. Retrieved 14 December 2011. 
  7. ^ "Who is fooling who?". Botswana Gazete. January 26 2011. http://www.gazettebw.com/index.php/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8557. Retrieved 10 April 2011. 
  8. ^ "Ghana's U-23 soccer team transit through Nairobi". MichezofAfrika.com. 7 April 2011. http://www.michezoafrika.com/Harambee%20Stars/Ghanas-U-23-soccer-team-transit-through-Nairobi/1388.aspx. Retrieved 10 April 2011. 

External links

Tournaments
Morocco 2011
Qualification
Squads