African Under-17 football championship starts

 

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Action was due to start on Thursday as the 8th edition o f the biennial African Under-17 Championship kicks off in Algeria.

Eight countries - host Algeria, Gambia, Guinea, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe , Niger and Malawi - are participating in the competition.

Algeria was billed to take on Cameroon the opening group A match in Zeralda, som e 40kms away from the capital city of Algiers, to be followed by Guinea and Gambia also in the same group.

Organiser Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) said all is ready for the succe ssful staging of the competition.

Ahead of the opening matches, the competition's Medical Board, chaired by Algeri an Yacine Zerguini, conducted a series of tests on the 160 players registered for the tournament.

The competition is important because all the four semi-finalists will qualify fo r the FIFA U-17 World Cup to be held in Nigeria later in the year.

African powerhouses in age-group football, Nigeria and Ghana, did not qualify fo r the African U-17 Championship.
 
Lagos - 19/03/2009
 
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