The Confederation of African Football has mapped out Nigeria’s path to the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup following the draw for the African qualifiers conducted on Saturday in Rabat.

Nigeria’s U-17 women’s team, the Flamingos, will begin their qualification campaign in the second round, where they will face the winner of the preliminary tie between Niger and Guinea. That encounter will be decided over two legs, with the first matches scheduled for between 22 and 24 May and the return fixtures to be played from 29 to 31 May.

If Nigeria progress, they will move into the third and decisive round of the qualifiers, with the battle for World Cup places set to intensify in early July. The first leg of the third round will take place between 3 and 5 July, with the return leg fixed for 10 to 12 July.

The draw also underlined Nigeria’s standing at this level, with the Flamingos handed a bye past the preliminary round. Elsewhere in the second round, several high-profile ties will be played across the continent, including Burkina Faso against Benin, Tunisia versus Senegal, Algeria facing Cameroon, Ghana taking on Togo, and South Africa meeting the Central African Republic.

Winners from those fixtures will advance to the final round, where Africa’s representatives at the global tournament will be confirmed.

Four African teams will qualify for the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco, joining the host nation to complete the continent’s lineup.

Nigeria enter the qualifiers with a formidable pedigree. The Flamingos are the most consistent African performers in the history of the competition, having qualified for eight of the nine editions since the tournament was launched in 2008.

Their best showing came in 2022, when they claimed a bronze medal with a third-place finish in India, after missing out on qualification for the previous edition in Uruguay. Now, having appeared in nine African qualification campaigns, Nigeria are chasing a record-extending 10th appearance at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.