Morocco, Uganda Get U-17 Afcon Underway

The 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations gets underway late on Sunday early Monday for the CAT and EAT time zones with host nation Morocco taking on Uganda in the tournament opener in Mohammedia.

This 20th edition of the U-17 AFCON features 16 teams competing first for 10 spots at the U-17 World Cup in Qatar later in the year, as well as the honour of winning the age-group continental championship.

The top two teams from each group eight will secure a World Cup berth before going on to compete in the quarterfinals and onward, while four the third-placed teams will face off in an additional playoff round to determine the two additional qualifiers for Qatar.

The tournament gets going with Uganda hoping to upset the hosts in Group A with Cranes coach Brian Ssenyondo acknowledging the difficulty of a draw which has put them up against the Atlas Lions, Tanzania and Zambia.

I would say it is a group of death because all the teams are very hard but we started this journey with just one target, which is to qualify for the World Cup and we will give it our all to see to it that at the end of the matches in the group, we are through to the World Cup, he explained.