Regulations for the TotalEnergies CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations | COSAFA Qualifier

The TotalEnergies CAF Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations | COSAFA Qualifier will be staged in Maputo from Thursday until the final on October 5, where the battle will be on for two places at the continental finals.

SQUAD SIZE
Coaches will be able to select a preliminary squad of 30 players, which must be cut down to 20 for the tournament. Teams may also bring seven officials, including coaches, medical personnel, one of which must be a safeguarding officer.

FORMAT
The teams have been drawn into three groups, two containing four teams and one of three sides. The top team in each pool advances to the semifinals along with the best-placed runner-up. When calculating the best-placed runner-up, results against the side that finishes bottom in the pool are disregarded.

DECIDING GROUP PLACES
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. If this does not provide a conclusion, the next criteria will be goal difference resulting from all group matches and then greater number of goals scored in all the group matches. If there is still no clear winner a Fair Play points system in which the number of yellow and red cards are evaluated will be used. Failing that there will be the drawing of lots. Should more than two sides finish level on points, the following criteria is used: (a) The greatest number of points obtained in the matches between the teams concerned; (b) The goal difference in the matches between the teams concerned; (c) The greatest number of goals scored in the matches between the teams concerned; (d) If after applying criteria a to c, two teams are still equal, the criteria are again applied to matches played between the two teams in question to determine the final ranking of the two teams. If this procedure does not allow classifying them, the criteria listed below will be applied in the indicated order:

• The goal difference in all group matches;
• The highest number of goals scored in all group matches;
• Fair Play point system

 DETERMINING THE BEST RUNNER-UP
The best runner-up across the three groups will be determined as follows. The higher number of points the teams concerned obtained in their group matches, the superior goal difference of the teams concerned and the higher number of goals the teams concerned. If there is still no clear winner then it will come down to Fair Play points of the teams concerned in terms of yellow or red cards accumulated in the pool phase. The results of the team finishing in the fourth position will be discarded for the pools that have that number of teams.

EXTRA-TIME/PENALTIES
There will be no extra-time played in the semifinals or final. Tied matches will go straight to penalties.

YELLOW/RED CARDS
If a player receives two yellow cards in the tournament, he will be suspended for one match. However, bookings picked up in the group phase fall away ahead of the knockout phase, unless they receive two yellows in the final pool stage game, in which case the suspension is carried over. If a player receives a red card in a game, he will also serve a one-match suspension. If a player received two red cards in the tournament, he will be suspended for the remainder of the competition and play no further part.

SUBSTITUTES
Teams may make up to five substitutions in a game, though these must be limited to three separate occasions within the match (not including halftime). A maximum of nine substitutes are permitted on the bench.