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2026 African U-20 Women's World Cup qualification
| Tournament details |
|---|
| 9 May 2025 – 10 May 2026 |
| 38 |
| 55 |
| 169 (3.07 per match) |
| Romaine Gandonou(11 goals) |
| ← 2024 2028 → |
| All statistics correct as of 14 February 2026. |
The 2026 African U-20 Women's World Cup qualification is the 13th edition of the biennial African youth football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to determine which African women's under-20 national teams qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Players born on or after 1 January 2006 are eligible to compete.
Four teams will qualify for the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Poland as the CAF representatives.
The draw was held on 12 December 2024 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
- First Round: The 12 lowest-ranked teams, based on previous U-20 Women's World Cup qualifiers performance, will contest in this round. The six winners will advance to join the 26 top-ranked teams exempted from the first round.
- Second Round: The six first-round winners and 26 exempted teams will form 32 teams. These will battle it out for 16 spots in the third round.
- Third Round: The remaining 16 teams will compete in a knockout format to determine the eight teams advancing to the fourth round.
- Fourth Round: The final eight teams will play knockout ties, with the winners earning qualification to the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.
A total of 38 (out of 54) CAF member associations registered teams for the competition. The teams were seeded based on their performance in the previous qualifying campaign. The four lowest-ranked teams, along with eight associations that did not participate in the previous edition, entered the first round, which featured six ties. The winners of these ties advanced to the second round.
Qualification rankings
The teams were seeded into pots based on geographical distribution, with UNAF, UNIFFAC and WAFU placed in one pot and CECAFA and COSAFA in the other. Ties were drawn between teams from the same pot to minimize travel costs.
First round
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 |
|---|---|
| .mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0} Tunisia Gambia Togo Ivory Coast Niger Gabon | Rwanda Djibouti South Sudan Central African Republic Malawi Zimbabwe |
Second round
| Pot 1(CECAFA and COSAFA) | Pot 2(UNAF, UNIFFAC and WAFU) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Eswatini South Africa Botswana Angola Burundi Kenya | Zambia Namibia Mozambique Ethiopia Uganda Tanzania | Egypt Senegal Mali Benin DR Congo | Algeria Guinea Guinea-Bissau Congo Equatorial Guinea |
The following associations have previously fielded or currently field a women's under-20 team but chose not to participate:
The following associations have never fielded a women's under-20 team and did not participate:
Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still tied, the penalty shoot-out (no extra time) would be used to determine the winner.
| Round | Leg | Date |
|---|---|---|
| First round | First leg | 9–11 May 2025 |
| Second leg | 16–18 May 2025 | |
| Second round | First leg | 19–21 September 2025 |
| Second leg | 26–28 September 2025 | |
| Third round | First leg | 6–8 February 2026 |
| Second leg | 12–14 February 2026 | |
| Fourth round | First leg | 1–3 May 2026 |
| Second leg | 8–10 May 2026 |
The four winners of the fourth round would qualify for the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.
| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gabon | w/o | Niger | — | — |
| Togo | 1–2 | Tunisia | 1–1 | 0–1 |
| Gambia | 0–6 | Ivory Coast | 0–1 | 0–5 |
| Rwanda | 2–1 | Zimbabwe | 2–1 | 0–0 |
| South Sudan | 13–0 | Djibouti | 5–0 | 8–0 |
| Malawi | 4–2 | Central African Republic | 3–1 | 1–1 |
Tunisia won 2–1 on aggregate.
Ivory Coast won 6–0 on aggregate.
Rwanda won 2–1 on aggregate.
South Sudan won 13–0 on aggregate.
Malawi won 4–2 on aggregate.
| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niger | 0–18 | Cameroon | 0–9 | 0–9 |
| Botswana | 3–1 | Mozambique | 2–0 | 1–1 |
| Ethiopia | 1–5 | Kenya | 1–1 | 0–4 |
| Tanzania | 7–0 | Angola | 4–0 | 3–0 |
| Tunisia | 0–4 | Ghana | 0–2 | 0–2 |
| Eswatini | 0–9 | South Africa | 0–5 | 0–4 |
| Uganda | 5–0 | Namibia | 3–0 | 2–0 |
| Burundi | 1–4 | Zambia | 1–2 | 0–2 |
| Ivory Coast | 6–4 | Morocco | 3–1 | 3–3 |
| Mali | w/o | DR Congo | 1–1 | — |
| Equatorial Guinea | 1–3 | Egypt | 1–0 | 0–3 |
| Benin | 9–4 | Guinea | 5–1 | 4–3 |
| Rwanda | 0–5 | Nigeria | 0–1 | 0–4 |
| Senegal | 6–0 | Algeria | 2–0 | 4–0 |
| Guinea-Bissau | w/o | Congo | — | — |
| South Sudan | 1–3 | Malawi | 0–2 | 1–1 |
Cameroon won 18–0 on aggregate.
Botswana won 3–1 on aggregate.
Kenya won 5–1 on aggregate.
Tanzania won 7–0 on aggregate.
Ghana won 4–0 on aggregate.
South Africa won 9–0 on aggregate.
Uganda won 5–0 on aggregate.
Zambia won 4–1 on aggregate.
Ivory Coast won 6–4 on aggregate.
DR Congo won on walkover and advanced to the third round after Mali withdrew prior to the second leg following a 1–1 draw in the first leg.
Egypt won 3–1 on aggregate.
Benin won 9–4 on aggregate.
Nigeria won 5–0 on aggregate.
Senegal won 6–0 on aggregate.
Guinea-Bissau won on walkover and advanced to the third round after Congo withdrew prior to the first leg without giving any clarification on the reason.
Malawi won 3–1 on aggregate.
| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameroon | 5–1 | Botswana | 5–0 | 0–1 |
| Kenya | 1–1 (1–3 p) | Tanzania | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| Ghana | 3–2 | South Africa | 2–2 | 1–0 |
| Uganda | 2–1 | Zambia | 1–1 | 1–0 |
| Ivory Coast | 2–1 | DR Congo | 2–0 | 0–1 |
| Egypt | 0–5 | Benin | 0–1 | 0–4 |
| Nigeria | 3–1 | Senegal | 1–0 | 2–1 |
| Guinea-Bissau | 2–6 | Malawi | 1–1 | 1–5 |
Cameroon won 5–1 on aggregate.
1–1 on aggregate. Tanzania won 3–1 on penalties.
Ghana won 3–2 on aggregate.
Uganda won 2–1 on aggregate.
Ivory Coast won 2–1 on aggregate.
Benin won 5–0 on aggregate.
Nigeria won 3–1 on aggregate.
Malawi won 6–2 on aggregate.
| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameroon | Tanzania | 3–1 | 10 May | |
| Ghana | Uganda | 2–1 | 9 May | |
| Ivory Coast | Benin | 1–1 | 10 May | |
| Nigeria | Malawi | 2–0 | 9 May |
The following four teams from CAF will qualify for the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Poland.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup1 |
|---|---|---|
| 9 May 2026 | ||
| 9 May 2026 | ||
| 10 May 2026 | ||
| 10 May 2026 | 0 (debut) |
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
There have been 169 goals scored in 55 matches, for an average of 3.07 goals per match (as of 14 February 2026).
11 goals
6 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
- 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations
- 2025 African U-17 Women's World Cup qualification
- 2026 African U-17 Women's World Cup qualification
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