Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license.
Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat.
We can research this topic together.
Zambia were the defending champions, having defeated South Africa 2–1 in the final of the previous edition, and they successfully retained their title by defeating Angola 2–1 in the final.
Participation
Participating teams
Twelve of the 14 COSAFA member nations have entered the competition, which serves as the regional qualifying tournament for the 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.
Note: All statistics exclude instances where the team was disqualified during the tournament.
The draw was held on 5 September 2024 at 11:00 CET (UTC+2) at Maputo. The 12 teams were drawn into three groups of four teams, with hosts Mozambique seeded in Group A (position A1), the defending champions Zambia seeded in Group B (position B1) and South Africa seeded in Group C (position C1). The remaining 9 teams were allocated to two pots based on the results of the previous tournament edition and were drawn to the remaining positions.
Each team was required to register a squad of 20 players for the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2008 eligible to participate.
Venues
On 26 November 2024, it was announced that the tournament had been moved from the original host city, Maputo, Mozambique, to Johannesburg, South Africa, with two venues selected to host all matches.
Should two teams finish on the same number of points in the pool phase, they will be separated by:
The result of their head-to-head meetings in the first instance;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Disciplinary points
Yellow card: −1 point;
Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points;
Direct red card: −3 points;
Drawing of lots.
Should more than two teams finish level on points, the following criteria will be used:
The greatest number of points obtained in the matches between the teams concerned;
The goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned;
The greatest number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned;
If after applying criteria (1) to (3), two teams are still equal, the criteria will be reapplied to matches played between the two teams in question to determine the final ranking of the two teams.
If this procedure does not allow for classification, the criteria listed below will be applied in the indicated order:
Goal difference in all group matches;
The highest number of goals scored in all group matches;
"Moçambique já não vai sediar torneio Sub-17" [Mozambique will no longer host the U-17 tournament.]. jornaldesafio.co.mz (in Portuguese). 20 November 2024. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
Zambia (4th title)
Angola
Botswana
Comoros
Eswatini
Lesotho
Malawi
Mauritius
Mozambique
Namibia
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Johannesburg
Noris Arissol
85'