Fred Vubem
1 September 2008
Cameroon has taken a good option towards qualification for the 8th African under 17 championship, to take place in Algeria next year. The under 17 Lions who were playing host to Gabon at the Mfandena sports complex in Yaounde, carried the day 2-0. The match counted for the first leg of the first round qualifiers for the championship. Cameroon proved to be more enterprising in the match and it was only logical that the fruit of their labour paid off.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the continent, the reigning world champions, the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria, beat their neighbours of Benin by an identical 2-0 victory. Two times world champions, the Black Starlets of Ghana trounced the junior Greens of Libya 3-0 in the final of a trilogy of matches between the two countries since June. Rwanda edged Sudan 2-1 in a hotly disputed encounter while Tunisia and Burkina Faso separated on a zero-all tie. The Amajimbos of South went down 0-1 at the Eldorado Park stadium to visiting and little known football country, Malawi. Whereas, Mali beat Niger 1-0.
Meanwhile the game between Zambia and Namibia has been postponed to next weekend.
The second leg matches has been scheduled for September 12-14 and the winners will progress to the final round of the qualifying rounds.
The competition was launched by the Confederation of African football in 1995 to encourage the development of youth football. It serves as preliminary for the FIFA under 17 world cups. From 1985 to 1993, qualification for the Under 17 World Cup was by a qualifying competition. Since the institution of the competition, Ghana has won it twice, including the maiden edition in 1995 and in 1999. Nigeria has also won it twice in 2001 and the last edition in Togo in 2007.
Egypt and Gambia like Cameroon, have only won it once. Egypt won the cup in 1997 while Gambia won it in 2005. Eight teams take part in the final phase of the competition and are usually divided into two pools.
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