Nigeria’s bid to compete at the 2025 CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco has come to an end, with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) confirming that the Golden Eaglets failed to secure qualification.
Despite a strong performance at last year’s WAFU B U17 Championship, where they secured third place with a 3-2 win over Ghana, the Golden Eaglets fell short in the qualifiers.
Only the top two teams from the regional qualifiers earned automatic places for the tournament, leaving Nigeria outside the qualifying spots.
CAF expand AFCON, but Nigeria still misses out
Recent speculation had suggested that Nigeria could still earn a spot if CAF expanded the U17 AFCON to 16 teams, following FIFA's decision to increase the number of slots for African teams at the U17 World Cup. While CAF did indeed expand the tournament, that speculation proved unjustified.
The additional slots were allocated to teams from other regions: Gambia, who finished third in the WAFU-A zone, Tunisia, as the UNAF region’s host nation, and teams from CECAFA and COSAFA.
As a result, despite their strong regional performance, the Golden Eaglets were left without a place in the expanded tournament.
This marks a disappointing setback for Nigeria’s youth football program, as they will miss out on an opportunity to extend their legacy in the U17 FIFA World Cup, where they have made a record ten appearances and won the competition five times.
After missing out on the 2023 U17 FIFA World Cup in Indonesia by finishing outside the top four at the U17 AFCON in Algeria, and now failing to qualify for the 2025 U17 World Cup in Qatar due to their absence from AFCON 2025, Nigeria faces the bitter reality of back-to-back World Cup absences.
