The Confederation of African Football has mapped out Nigeria’s pathway to the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup following the African qualifying draw conducted on Saturday in Rabat, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
Nigeria’s U-17 women’s side, the Flamingos, will begin their qualification quest in the second round, where they are set to face the winner of the preliminary clash between Niger and Guinea. That tie will be contested over two legs, with the first scheduled for May 22–24 and the return leg holding between May 29 and 31.
If the Flamingos negotiate that stage successfully, they will progress to the third round of the qualifiers, which will be played in early July. The first leg of the third round is billed for July 3–5, while the decisive return fixtures are slated for July 10–12, as the battle for Africa’s limited World Cup slots reaches its climax.
The draw also showed that Nigeria received a bye into the later stages, underlining their strong pedigree in the competition. The second round will feature several fixtures across the continent, including ties between Burkina Faso and Benin, Tunisia and Senegal, Algeria and Cameroon, Ghana and Togo, as well as South Africa against the Central African Republic.
Winners from those matchups will advance to the final round, where Africa’s representatives at the global tournament will be decided.
In total, four African teams will qualify for the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco, alongside the host nation.
Nigeria head into the qualifiers with an enviable track record. The Flamingos remain the only African team to have qualified for eight of the nine editions of the tournament since it was launched in 2008. Their best outing came in 2022, when they claimed a bronze medal with a third-place finish in India, having missed out on the previous edition in Uruguay.
At the continental level, Nigeria have featured nine times in African U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifying campaigns and are now aiming to secure a record-extending 10th appearance on the world stage.
