BREAKING: CAF cancels 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers, WAFCON holds March 

BREAKING: CAF cancels 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifiers, WAFCON holds March

By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has cancelled the New Year’s fixtures of the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup (FIFA U-17 WWC) qualifiers earlier scheduled for the first week of January 2026 even as it also abolished the first round of the preliminary matches with the participating countries including Nigeria now to  start from the second round of the qualifier slated for April 10 to 19 for the first and second legs respectively.

According to a letter signed by CAF’s Senior Manager, Competitions, Ms. Heba Sawart Abdalla, and addressed to CAF Member Associations (MAs), sighted by Prompt News, the 2026 FIFA U-17 WWC African qualifiers will however be concluded in July 2026 ahead of the final of the global junior women’s football tournament billed for October to November in the Kingdom of Morocco.

The CAF letter stated that following the finalisation of the list of the engaged federations in the African qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2026 and with reference to the attached, previously approved women’s calendar for 2026–only three rounds (not four) will be needed to qualify four teams, in addition to the host, for the final tournament of the FIFA U-17 WWC Morocco 2026.

It also said that as a result of the above, the qualifiers will now begin in April 2026, rather than in January, and will still be concluded as originally planned in July 2026.

According to the CAF women’s competitions calendar 2026 obtained by Prompt News, the January 9 to 18, 2026 window earlier reserved for the FIFA U-17 WWC first round African qualifiers have been cancelled outrightly while the February slot for the FIFA U-20 WWC African qualifiers involving the Falconets will still hold from February 6 to 14, 2026.

The final round of the FIFA U-20 WWC African qualifiers will be held between May 1 and 10, 2026, while the 2026 FIFA U-20 WWC finals will take place in September next year.

Meanwhile,  CAF insists the premier women’s football tournament in Africa, the  Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) will still hold in March 2026, although the continental soccer ruling body is yet to make public the duration of the competition, which will feature 16 teams, following the tournament’s expansion from 12, adding Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Egypt to the tournament. Nigeria is the defending champion.