2012 CAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament

The 2011 CAF U-23 Championship
CAF U-23 Championship
The CAF U-23 Championship is the main international football competition for CAF nations, played by under 23 years old players. It is held every four years with the top three teams qualifying automatically to the Olympic Games and the fourth placed finisher playing in a play-off against a team from...

is 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. On October 13, 2011, Morocco was chosen as the replacement to host the tournament.

The tournament also doubles up as the qualifiers for the 2012 Summer Olympics

Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics is scheduled to be held in London and several other cities in the United Kingdom, from 25 July to 11 August. The finals will be played at Wembley Stadium. Associations affiliated with FIFA are invited to send their full women's national teams and men's U-23...

. The top 3 placed teams will qualify automatically for the 2012 Summer Olympics

Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics

football tournament, while the 4th best placed team will qualify for a play-off with an AFC

Asian Football Confederation

The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football in Asia. It has 46 member countries, mostly located on the Asian continent. However, due to the disputed boundary of Europe and Asia, nations such as Russia and Turkey which are located mostly in geographic Asia are...

counterpart.

Qualified Teams

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 Marrakech Marrakech or Marrakesh , known as the "Ochre city", is the most important former imperial city in Morocco's history...	Tangiers
Stade de Marrakech Stade de Marrakech Stade de Marrakech, The Marrakesh Stadium, is a multi-use stadium in Marrakech, Morocco. It was designed by Gregotti Associati International....	Stade de Tanger Stade de Tanger Stade de Tanger, also known as the Stade Ibn Battouta, is a multi-use stadium in Tanger, Morocco. Once completed in 2011, it will be used mostly for football matches. The stadium has a capacity of 45,000 people...

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

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, Egypt.

Group Stage

All times given as local time (UTC)

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

Points in the matches between the concerned teams,
Goal difference in the matches between the concerned teams,
Number of goals in the matches between the concerned teams,
Goal difference in all group matches,
Number of goals in all group matches,
Fair Play point (number of yellow and red cards),
Drawing of lots.

Legend
Team qualified for the Semi-finals
Team have been eliminated

Group A

2
Team
	2	2	0	0	2	0
6
	2	1	0	1	1	1	0	3
	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3
	2	0	0	2	1	3
0

On the last match day (2 December)

Morocco
- will be runner-up if
  - they lose by only 1 goal (except 1–0) or
  - they lose 1–0 and Algeria defeat Nigeria 1–0 or
  - Algeria do not win
- will win the group if they do not lose to Senegal

Algeria
- will be runner-up if
  - they do not lose to Nigeria and Senegal do not defeat Morocco or
  - they win and Senegal win by at least 2 goals
- will win the group if they defeat Nigeria by any score except 1–0 and Senegal defeat Morocco 1–0

Senegal
- will advance to the semifinals if
  - they defeat Morocco or
  - they draw and Nigeria defeat Algeria or
  - Nigeria win 1–0
- will win the group if and
  - they defeat Morocco by any score except 1–0 or
  - they win by any score and Algeria do not defeat Nigeria (or Algeria win 1–0)

Nigeria will be runner-up if they defeat Algeria by any score except 1–0 and Morocco defeat Senegal

----

----

----

----

----

Group B

1
Team
	2	1	1	0	2	1
4
	2	1	0	1	1	1	0	3
	2	0	2	0	2	2	0	2
	2	0	1	1	1	2
1

On the last match day (3 December)

Côte d'Ivoire
- will advance to the semifinals if
  - they do not lose to Gabon or
  - they lose by only 1 goal and Egypt and South Africa draw 0–0 (or any draw if Côte d'Ivoire's loss is not 1–0)
- will win the group if
  - they defeat Gabon or
  - they draw and South Africa defeat Egypt by only 1 goal and Côte d'Ivoire score more than South Africa or
  - both matches are draws

Egypt
- will be runner-up if
  - they defeat South Africa and Côte d'Ivoire defeat Gabon or
  - they draw and Gabon do not defeat Côte d'Ivoire or
  - they draw and Gabon win by at least 2 goals
- will win the group if
  - they defeat South Africa and Côte d'Ivoire do not defeat Gabon or
  - they draw, scoring at least 2 goals and Gabon win 1–0

South Africa
- will advance to the semifinals if they defeat Egypt
- will win the group if
  - they defeat Egypt by at least 2 goals (or 1 if they score more than Côte d'Ivoire) and Gabon and Côte d'Ivoire draw or
  - they win by any score and Gabon defeat Côte d'Ivoire

Gabon
- will advance to the semifinals if they defeat Côte d'Ivoire
- will win the group if they defeat Côte d'Ivoire and Egypt and South Africa draw 0–0 (or any draw if Gabon's win is not 1–0)

Fair play points will determine the finishing order in these scenarios:
- 1st and 2nd (between Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa) if South Africa win by 1 goal and Côte d'Ivoire draw, each scoring the same number of goals
- 1st through 3rd (between Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon) if Gabon win 1–0 and Egypt draw 1–1

----
----

Knockout Stages

All times given as local time (UTC+1

UTC+1

UTC+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601 the associated time would be written as .This time is used in:*Central European Time*West Africa Time*Western European Summer Time**British Summer Time**Irish Standard Time...

)

Semi-finals

----

Third Place Play-off

Final

Criticisms

Some have questioned the need for the tournament and believe that the CAF-organised Under-23 football tournament, the 2011 All-Africa Games

2011 All-Africa Games

The 10th All-Africa Games took place between September 3–18, 2011 in Maputo, Mozambique. Maputo's hosting marked only the third time the Games was held in the southern part of the continent.-Host awarding:...

' football tournament

Football at the 2011 All-Africa Games

Football at the 2011 All-Africa Games will be held in Maputo, Mozambique from September 3 to September 18.-Venue:-Men:-Women:...

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.

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

FIFA

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...

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.

Goalscorers

1 goal Mehdi Benaldjia

Mehdi Benaldjia

Mehdi Benaldjia is an Algerian football player. He is currently playing for USM Alger in the Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1.-Personal:Benaldjia is the younger brother of footballer Mohamed Billel Benaldjia....

Georges Henri Griffiths Moussa Koné

Moussa Koné

Moussa Saib Koné is an Ivorian footballer who currently plays for Pescara, on loan from Atalanta, as a midfielder.-Early career:...

Ahmed Magdi

Ahmed Magdi is an Egyptian footballer.-Career:At the club level, Magdi currently plays as a left winger for the Egyptian Premier League club Ghazl El-Mehalla. He is also a member of the Egypt U-20 national team.-References:...

Johan Diderot Lengoulama Abdelaziz Barrada

Abdelaziz Barrada

Abdelaziz Barrada , sometimes known as just Abdel, is a French-born Moroccan footballer who plays for Getafe CF in Spain, as a central midfielder.-Football career:...

Adnane Tighadouini

Adnane Tighadouini is a footballer who plays as a striker for Vitesse in the Eredivisie.- Career :Born in Ede, Netherlands, Tighadouini began playing youth football for local side Vitesse. He made his Eredivisie debut for Vitesse's senior side on 24 April 2011 against FC Utrecht, where he also...

Danny Uchechi

Kara Mbodj Abdoulaye Sané Phumelele Bhengu Mandla Masango

Mandla Masango

Mandla Masango is a South African footballer who plays as a midfielder. He currently plays for Kaizer Chiefs F.C. in the Premier Soccer League. Masango has also represented South Africa at the U-17, U-20 and U-23 levels.-Club career:...

External links

CAF U-23 Championship

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.