African Youth Games – The third edition of the African Youth Games will take place in Algiers during the month of July 2018. 54 African countries are invited to compete in 28 different sports.

The Algerian Olympic Committee (COA) in agreement with the ACNOA and UCSA, hosted a workshop on May 24th and 25th gathering the various stakeholders of this huge continental sports event. In attendance of  this meeting were: Algerian MJS’ representative, COA’s representative, COJA’s chairman, UCSA’s chairman, ACNOA vice-president and the representatives of the 14 confederations of African sport, including rugby, only representative for team sports.

May 24th was dedicated to visiting some of the sports infrastructure: the Olympic stadium “July 5th” (reserved for the opening and the closing of the games, 66000 seats), the athletics stadium, the Olympic pool, the racetrack and the “Baraki” stadium (40000 places) still in construction. The stadium for rugby will be selected and visited during the next meeting.

An official meeting was held on May 25th at the national museum of sport. It gathered the same institutions and people as the day before. Both male and female athletes and teams are invited.

Unions are invited to express their interest to their NOC and request funding to travel to Algeria.

ACNOA’s propositions

Set up the following roadmap :

• 16 June 2017 : Final set up of the COJA’s members
• 30June : Sending of the participation invitations to the Games to all the National Olympic Committee (NOCs) of the 54 countries
• 7 July : Conception of the draft of the Games manual
• 14-21 July : Review of the Games manual by the coordination committee
• 28 July : Meeting of the coordination committee to adopt the manual
• 4 August : Sending of the Games manual to the NOCs
• 25 August : Registration of the athletes and the teams by the NOCs
• 13-14 September : Visit of the infrastructure by the missions chef (COJA, ACNOA, UCSA, Confederations)
• 18 September 2017 : Meeting COJA – ACNOA – UCSA

Decisions 

• 54 countries will be invited to the Games by the Algerian government
• 13 Algerian ministries will be concerned by the Games
• Eligibility : qualified athletes : born between the 01/01/2000 and the 12/31/2003
• Mandatory parental permission for U18 athletes
• Minimum number of teams by sport : 4
• The athletes registration and/or the teams are made by their NOCs near the COJO which will give the list to the sports confederation and the UCSA
• Algerian teams will automatically qualify for the Games
• If the number of athletes or teams is very high, the confederation can organise qualifying tours

The African Youth Games will serve as continental qualifier for the Olympic Youth Games in Buenos Aires from the 1^st to the 6^th of October 2018.