| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 2 September 1984 – 4 May 1985 |
| Teams | 17 (from 1 confederation) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Nigeria (2nd title) |
| Runners-up |  Tunisia |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 26 |
| Goals scored | 59 (2.27 per match) |
The 1985 African Youth Championship was the 5th edition of the biennial African qualification tournament for the FIFA World Youth Championship which was contested on a home-and-away two-legged basis.
Nigeria reached the final for the first time in consecutive editions of the tournamentand successfully defended the title for the second time and beat Tunisia 3–2 on aggregate, although both teams qualified for the 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship in the Soviet Union.
Teams
The following teams entered this edition of the tournament and played at least a match:
Preliminary round
Burkina Faso, Libya and Togo withdrew, leaving Benin, Ethiopia and Senegal to advance to the First Round. The teams that received byes to the next round were Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Gambia  |
2–3 |  Ghana |
1–0 | 1–3 |
Equatorial Guinea  |
2–2 |  Angola |
2–1 | 0–1 |
Sudan  |
1–0 |  Uganda |
1–0 | 0–0 |
Mozambique  |
0–8 |  Zambia |
0–3 | 0–5 |
First round
Benin and Senegal withdrew, leaving Guinea and Ivory Coast to advance to the second round.
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tunisia |
0–0 (3–2 pen.) |
 Algeria |
0–0 | 0–0 |
Morocco  |
3–1 |  Egypt |
2–0 | 1–1 |
| Nigeria |
2–1 | Ghana |
2–0 | 0–1 |
Cameroon  |
5–0 | Angola |
3–0 | 2–0 |
Zimbabwe  |
4–3 | Sudan |
4–2 | 0–1 |
Ethiopia .svg.png.webp){kind=small} |
5–3 | Zambia |
2–2 | 3–1 |
Quarter-finals
Ivory Coast entered this edition of the tournament at this round.
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Guinea  |
1–3 |  Ivory Coast |
0–0 | 1–3 |
| Morocco |
1–2 | Tunisia |
1–0 | 0–2 |
| Cameroon |
4–5 | Nigeria |
3–0 | 1–5 |
| Ethiopia |
3–1 | Zimbabwe |
1–1 | 2–0 |
Semi-finals
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ivory Coast |
1–1 (a) | Tunisia |
1–1 | 0–0 |
| Nigeria |
4–1 | Ethiopia |
3–0 | 1–1 |
Final
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tunisia |
2–3 | Nigeria |
1–1 | 1–2 |
| 1985 African Youth Championship |
|---|
Nigeria 2nd title |
Qualification for the World Youth Championship
These two best performing teams qualified for the 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship in the Soviet Union: