Aubameyang, Mane and Salah vie for Caf Player of the Year award

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah made the final shortlist for Caf's 2017 African Footballer of the Year

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has announced its final shortlists for its 2017 awards.

A Caf emergency committee meeting decided that the Africa-based Player of the Year and referee categories should be removed.

No reasons were given for the decisions after 10 footballers and six referees had been shortlisted last month for the awards.

Liverpool duo of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are joined by Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the three-man list.

Egypt's Salah has already won the 2017 BBC African Footballer of the Year award, while Gabon's Aubameyang won the Caf award in 2015.

Senegal's Mane has been included in the Caf Team of the Year for 2015 and 2016.

The list was cut from 11 nominees that Caf announced in November.

Hugo Broos, who led Cameroon to the Africa Cup of Nations title in February, missed out on the final three-man list after being named among the original five nominees.

That left Egypt coach Hector Cuper, Nigeria boss Gernot Rohr and L'Hussein Amoutta of Wydad Casablanca in contention for the award.

Last year's winner Riyad Mahrez of Algeria and Leicester City missed out on the original list of nominees.

Caf also released the shortlists for several of its other award categories, which will be handed out on 4 January in Accra, Ghana.

African Player of the Year:

• Mohamed Salah (Egypt and Liverpool)

• Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon and Borussia Dortmund)

• Sadio Mane (Senegal and Liverpool)

Women's Player of the Year:

• Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria and Dalian Quanjian)

• Chrestina Kgatlana (South Africa and UWC Ladies)

• Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene(Cameroon and CSKA Moscow)

Women's National Team of the Year:

• Ghana U-20

• Nigeria U-20

• South Africa

Coach of the Year:

• Gernot Rohr (Nigeria)

• Hector Cuper (Egypt)

• L'Hussein Amoutta (Wydad Casablanca)

National Team of the Year:

• Cameroon

• Egypt

• Nigeria

Club of the Year:

• Al Ahly

• TP Mazembe

• Wydad Casablanca

Youth Player of the Year:

• Krepin Diatta (Senegal and Sarpsborg)

• Patson Daka (Zambia and Liefering)

• Salam Giddou (Mali and Guidars)