2020 Futsal Africa Cup of Nations explained

Tourney Name:Africa Futsal Cup of Nations
Year:2020
Country:Morocco
City:Laayoune
Num Teams:8
Confederations:1
Venues:2
Cities:1
Count:2
Matches:14
Goals:83
Top Scorer: Magu
Goalkeeper: Reda Khiyari
Prevseason:2016
Nextseason:2024

The 2020 Africa Futsal Cup of Nations was the seventh edition of the Africa Futsal Cup of Nations, the quadrennial international futsal championship organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the men's national teams of Africa. The tournament was held in Morocco between 28 January – 7 February 2020 (original dates were 17–26 April 2020).[1]

Same as previous editions, the tournament acted as the CAF qualifiers for the FIFA Futsal World Cup (except for 2012 when a separate qualifying tournament was organized as the 2011 African Futsal Championship was cancelled). The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup (originally 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic) in Lithuania as the CAF representatives.[2] [3]

Morocco were the defending champions and successfully managed to defend their title after beating Egypt 5–0 in the final.

Qualification

See main article: 2020 Futsal Africa Cup of Nations qualification.

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament. South Africa withdrew from the tournament on 15 January 2020 as they refused to play in Laayoune of Western Sahara due to the Western Sahara conflict.[4] They were replaced by Mauritius, which were eliminated by South Africa in the qualifying round.[5] [6] South Africa, together with Mauritius which withdrew after playing one match in the final tournament, were banned from the next two editions of the Africa Futsal Cup of Nations.[7]

Teamdata-sort-type="number"AppearancePrevious best performance
3rd (2008, 2016)
6th (1996, 2000, 2004)
1st
1st
4th (2008)
1st
(hosts) 5th (2016)
4th (2004)

Venues

The matches were played at two venues in Laayoune.

Squads

See main article: article and 2020 Futsal Africa Cup of Nations squads.

Each squad can contained a maximum of 14 players.[8]

Group stage

The draw for the final tournament took place on 7 December 2019, 19:00 WEST (UTC+1), at the Palais des Congrès in Laayoune.[9] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four.[10] For the draw, the hosts Morocco were seeded in position A1, and Egypt, which had the highest ranking among the other teams, were seeded in position B1. The remaining six teams were drawn from one pot to fill the other positions in the two groups.[11]

The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.

TiebreakersThe teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order (Article 68):[8]
  1. Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
  2. Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
  3. Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
  4. If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 apply;
  5. Goal difference in all games;
  6. Goals scored in all games;
  7. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, WEST (UTC+1).[12]

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time (two periods of 5 minutes each) and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where penalty shoot-out (no extra time) is used to decide the winner if necessary.

Semi-finals

Winners qualify for 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup.

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Third place match

Winner qualifies for 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup.

Final

Qualified teams for FIFA Futsal World Cup

The following three teams from CAF qualified for the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup.

TeamQualified ondata-sort-type="number"Previous appearances in FIFA Futsal World Cup1
[13] 6 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
2 (2012, 2016)
0 (debut)

1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Decisions of CAF Executive - 27 & 28 September 2018. CAF. 29 September 2018.
  2. Web site: FIFA Futsal World Cup 2020 – slot allocation. FIFA.com. 14 June 2018.
  3. Web site: Bureau of the FIFA Council decisions on FIFA events. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. FIFA.com. 12 May 2020.
  4. Web site: SAFA withdraws from 2020 Africa Futsal Cup of Nations. Sport24. 15 January 2020.
  5. Web site: Gangaram. Loïc. Futsal – CAN 2020 : Maurice remplace l’Afrique du Sud. Le Défi Plus. 16 January 2020. fr. 17 January 2020. 13 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200913021917/https://sport.defimedia.info/futsal-can-2020-maurice-remplace-lafrique-du-sud. dead.
  6. Web site: Mauritius replaces South Africa for Total Futsal Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2020. CAF. 21 January 2020.
  7. Web site: Decisions of CAF Disciplinary Board – 30 January 2020. CAF. 31 January 2020.
  8. Web site: Regulations of the Futsal Africa Cup of Nations. CAF.
  9. Web site: Futsal Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2020: Results of Draw for Final Tournament. CAF. 7 December 2019.
  10. Web site: Watch live: Futsal Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2020 draw. CAF. 7 December 2019.
  11. Web site: Procedure for the draw of the Futsal AFCON Morocco 2020. CAF. 7 December 2019.
  12. Web site: FIXTURES FROM THE 28TH OF JANUARY TO THE 7 TH OF FEBRUARY 2020 . CAF . 21 January 2020.
  13. Web site: Egypt and Morocco punch Africa's first tickets to Lithuania 2020. FIFA.com. 5 February 2020.