CAF Omits Eaglets From U-17 AFCON Lineup

The hopes of the Golden Eaglets securing a spot in the 2025 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco have been dashed, as the Confederation of African Football (CAF) finalized its selection process for the expanded tournament without including Nigeria, according to The PUNCH.

The competition is set to take place in Morocco from March 30 to April 19, 2025, serving as the pathway to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar later in November. Nigeria, a five-time champion of the global tournament, failed to progress past the qualification stage despite securing third place at the 2023 WAFU B U-17 Championship in Ghana. Instead, Burkina Faso, who won the regional tournament, and runners-up Ivory Coast claimed the two available qualification spots.

CAF has now distributed four additional slots in the expanded competition to Gambia—who secured third place in the WAFU Zone A qualifiers—Tunisia, and two teams from the CECAFA and COSAFA regions.

Furthermore, two more places in the 16-team tournament will be filled by the best-performing teams in the UNIFFAC regional qualifiers, which will be hosted by Cameroon from February 16 to 28. The tournament will feature five teams: Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Congo.

With these allocations, the Golden Eaglets have been completely ruled out of the tournament, meaning they will miss consecutive FIFA U-17 World Cups.

This marks a major setback for Nigerian youth football, as the country also failed to qualify for the 2023 U-17 FIFA World Cup in Indonesia after falling short of the top-four spots at the U-17 AFCON in Algeria.

CAF recently confirmed that its executive committee had approved the expansion of the U-17 AFCON, a decision that initially sparked optimism. Many had expected CAF to modify the qualification structure, especially after FIFA, during its congress in Bangkok, increased Africa’s slots for the U-17 World Cup to 10 in light of the global tournament’s expansion to 48 teams. However, despite the added places, Nigeria will not be among the teams competing for a spot on the world stage.

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