2011 African U-23 Championship


The 2011 African U-23 Championship was the first edition of the football tournament for players under 23 years. It was originally scheduled to be hosted by Egypt from 26 November to 10 December 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 13 October 2011, Morocco was chosen as the replacement to host the tournament.
The tournament also doubles up as the qualifiers for the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament|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.

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:
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Draw

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

Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.
RefereesLinesmen


Group stage

All times given as local time
If two or more teams tied in their points, the following tie-breaker is used:
  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,
  7. Drawing of lots.

Group A


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Group B


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Knockout stage

''All times given as local time ''

Semi-finals

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Best eleven

The team of the tournament with substitutes:

Goalscorers

;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal

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.
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.

Qualified teams for Summer Olympics

The following three teams from CAF qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics men's football tournament.
TeamQualified onPrevious appearances in Summer Olympics1
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