The Golden Eaglets’ hopes of participating in the 2025 U-17 AFCON in Morocco have been dashed after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced the allocation of slots for the expanded tournament.
Despite finishing third in the 2024 WAFU B U-17 Championship in Ghana, Nigeria failed to secure an automatic spot, with Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso taking the top two spots in the region.
CAF has allotted four slots in the expanded tournament to other countries, including The Gambia, Tunisia, and two countries from the CECAFA and COSAFA regions.
The remaining two spots will be filled by the top two teams in the UNIFFAC region qualifiers, which will be hosted by Cameroon from February 16 to 28.
The Golden Eaglets’ absence from the tournament means they will miss back-to-back FIFA U-17 World Cups, a setback for Nigeria’s age-grade football.
Nigeria has won the U-17 World Cup five times, but their recent performances have been underwhelming.
They also missed out on the 2023 U-17 FIFA World Cup in Indonesia by finishing outside the top four at the U-17 AFCON in Algeria.
The expansion of the U-17 AFCON tournament was approved by CAF’s executive committee, following FIFA’s decision to increase Africa’s U17 World Cup slots to 10 teams for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar.
However, the allocation of slots has left Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets outside looking in.
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