2026 African U-17 Women's World Cup qualification

The qualification compeitition consists of three rounds of home-and-away matches. Thirty teams will enter the first round, with one team exempted based on its performance across the last five editions of the qualification competition. The 15 winners advance to the second round, where they are joined by the exempted team. These 16 teams compete for eight places in the third round. The remaining eight teams then face off in four two-legged ties, with the four winners qualifying for the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.^[1]

Schedule
Round	Leg	Date(s)	Teams
First round	First	10–12 April 2026	30
	Second	17–19 April 2026
Second round	First	22–24 May 2026	16
	Second	29–31 May 2026
Third round	First	3–5 July 2026	8
	Second	10–12 July 2026

A total of 31 (out of 53; excluding Morocco) CAF member associations registered teams for the competition. Malawi make their qualification debuts at/in this edition.^[2]

The following 22 associations have either previously fielded or currently field a women's under-17 team, or do not have one but opted not to participate:

External videos
African Qualifiers – Draw
Qualifiers of the U17 WWC 2026 - Draw

The draw was held on 10 January 2026 in Rabat, Morocco at 13:00 (UTC+1).^[3] The draw was conducted by Jacqui Shipanga.

Seeding is determined according to criteria established by FIFA for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, based on team performances across the last five editions, with greater weight given to the most recent tournaments. To take geographical considerations into account, neighboring zones are grouped where possible depending on the number of participating teams. The draw is organized into four pots, consisting of the two highest-seeded and the two lowest-seeded teams.

Bye to second round
Nigeria (Highest ranked)

Pot 1[a]	Pot 2[b]	Pot 3[c]	Pot 4[d]
Cameroon  Ghana  Ivory Coast  Guinea  Benin  Liberia  Senegal	Burkina Faso  Niger  Sierra Leone  Togo  Algeria  Libya  Tunisia	Zambia  Kenya  Burundi  Tanzania  South Africa  Ethiopia  Djibouti  Uganda	Botswana  Malawi  Namibia  Rwanda  South Sudan  Zimbabwe  DR Congo  Central African Republic

To maintain geographical balance, teams from Pot 1 were paired with those from Pot 2, while Pot 3 teams were paired with Pot 4.

Summarize Timeline Top Qs Fact Check

All match times listed are GMT, as listed by CAF. If the venue is located in a different time zone, the local time is also given in parentheses.

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Niger	2–8	Guinea	2–5	0–3
Burkina Faso	3–5	Benin	3–1	0–4
Sierra Leone	2–1	Ivory Coast	0–0	2–1
Tunisia	2–3	Senegal	1–1	1–2
Algeria	1–11	Cameroon	1–5	0–6
Togo	0–8	Ghana	0–2	0–6
Libya	w/o	Liberia	—	—
Rwanda	1–4	Zambia	0–2	1–2
DR Congo	w/o[4]	Djibouti	—	—
South Sudan	0–8	Ethiopia	0–2	0–6
Malawi	2–4	Burundi	1–2	1–2
Botswana	2–6	Tanzania	2–3	0–3
Central African Republic	w/o[5]	South Africa	—	—
Zimbabwe	1–6	Uganda	0–2	1–4
Namibia	1–7	Kenya	1–2	0–5

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Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Guinea		Nigeria	22–24 May	29–31 May
Benin		Sierra Leone	22–24 May	29–31 May
Senegal		Cameroon	22–24 May	29–31 May
Ghana		Liberia	22–24 May	29–31 May
Zambia		DR Congo	22–24 May	29–31 May
Ethiopia		Burundi	22–24 May	29–31 May
Tanzania		South Africa	22–24 May	29–31 May
Uganda		Kenya	22–24 May	29–31 May

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Winners of matches 31/32		Winners of matches 33/34	3–5 Jul	10–12 July
Winners of matches 35/36		Winners of matches 37/38	3–5 Jul	10–12 July
Winners of matches 39/40		Winners of matches 41/42	3–5 Jul	10–12 July
Winners of matches 43/44		Winners of matches 45/46	3–5 Jul	10–12 July