Nigeria to know foes for African U17 and U20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced the draw procedure and dates for the U17 and  U20 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers on Thursday, June 8 in Egypt.

Both draws will take place at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo at 13h00 local time (10h00 GMT).  The draws will officially kick off the road to the two 2024 women’s football global events.

For the U17 World Cup, a total of 25 nations will be involved in the drawing of lots which will be contested on a home and away basis.

The team’s are; Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa, DR Congo, Djibouti, Eq. Guinea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

However, Flamingos are on standby for the first round and will join the race for a spot in the second round.

First Round: Composed of two (2) teams. (The 2 teams are determined according to their participation in the last U17 Women’s World Cup editions). Second Round: the qualified teams from the first round in addition to the twenty-three (23) exempted teams will play in the second round. 12 teams will qualify for the 3rd round.

Third Round: The 12 qualified teams will play the third round qualifying 6 teams for the 4th round, while Fourth Round: the 6 qualified teams will play the fourth round qualifying three (3) teams for the U17 WWC.

Meanwhile, 35 have been confirmed for the U20 edition which will also be contested on a home and away basis.

With the Falconets on standby for the first round and will join the race for a spot in the second round, here are the 35 teams for the draw procedure:

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eq. Guinea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia.

First round is composed of 6 teams. (The 6 teams are determined according to their participation in the last U20 Women’s World Cup editions) and the second round: the 3 qualified teams from the first round in addition to the 29 exempted teams will play the 2nd round. 16 teams will qualify for the 3rd round.

Third round: The 16 qualified teams will play the 3rd round qualifying 8 teams for the 4th round, while in the Fourth round: the 8 qualified teams will play the 4th round qualifying 4 teams to the 5th round.

Fifth Round: the 4 qualified teams will play the last round qualifying 2 teams to the U20 WWC.

With this format, three teams will represent Africa at the U17 World Cup while two teams will hoist the continental colors at the U20 editio