The Confederation of Africa Football (Caf) has confirmed the tournament date for the third edition of the Africa Under-23 Cup of Nations slated for Egypt in 2019.
The Championship was originally scheduled for Zambia until they pulled out of hosting in July 2017. Two months later, Caf announced Egypt as replacement after an Executive Committee meeting in Accra.
Egypt were to host the quadrennial international age-restricted football championship for the men’s under-23 national teams of Africa in 2011 before it was moved to neighbouring Morocco less than two months prior to its start because of security concerns.
Now after 8 years, Egypt will get to host seven other nations from November 8-22, 2019.
The 2019 Under-23 Afcon will determine which three African teams will compete at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games 16-nation men’s football tournament.
Gabon won the maiden edition hosted in 2011 with Nigeria becoming the new champions after beating Senegal 2-1 in the final of the 2015 edition.
Qualification
To qualify for the tournament, participating nations have to overcome three two-legged qualifying stages.
The first round of the qualifiers is scheduled for November 12-20, 2018 while the second and third rounds have been planned for March 18-26 and June 3-11, 2019.
Ghana has failed to qualify for the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations since the introduction of the new format.
