On Monday, 10 May 2021, CAF will conduct the draw for the U17 FIFA Women’s World Cup, India 2022 Qualifiers at the organisation’s headquarters in Cairo.
A total of 29 countries will participate in the qualifiers but only three will make the trip to the U17 FIFA World Cup. This is a record number for this category.
To establish the fixture of the African qualifiers, 19 teams will be exempted from first round.
– The first round will include the 10 less ranked teams and the remaining 19 will be exempted. 10 teams will play the first round to qualify five teams.
– The second round will include the five qualified teams in addition to the 19 exempted will be a total of 24 teams.
– The third round will include the 12 teams qualified from the second round.
– The fourth round will include the 6 teams qualified from the third round and the winners will qualify to the World Cup.
CAF referred to the last three editions (2020-2018-2016) and evaluated the participating teams by the rounds to which they were qualified to rank them by points.
CECAFA (9): Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan
COSAFA) (4): South Africa, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana
UNAF (2): Morocco, Egypt
UNIFFAC (4): Cameroon, Congo DR, Sao Tome, Equatorial Guinea
WAFU A (6): Senegal, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mauritania
WAFU B (4): Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Niger
First Round:
Exempted teams (19):
Ethiopia-Tanzania-Uganda-Burundi-Djibouti-South Africa- Zambia-Namibia-Botswana- Morocco-Egypt-Cameroon-Sao Tome- Guinea- Guinea Bissau- Liberia-Nigeria- Ghana-Niger
The 10 teams that will play the first round are the following:
Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, DR Congo, Mauritania, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan
The draw for the first round will be established by zone to ensure the geographical factor and it will be a must to mix some zones together as follows:
POT A:
CECAFA (4) UNIFFAC (2): Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Eritrea, RD Congo, Equatorial Guinea
POT B:
WAFU A (3) + WAFU B (1): Benin, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Senegal
Second Round
The draw for the second round is established by zones to respect geographical proximity and ensure the minimum cost for the participating teams. However, some zones must be mixed have a complete fixture.
On the other hand, kindly note that the top 5 seeded teams according to CAF ranking system will not be included in pot A and B and will play against the teams qualified from the 1st round:
Cameroon, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Morocco
POT A:
CECAFA (5) + COSAFA (3): Ethiopia, Tanzania, Burundi, Djibouti, Uganda, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana
POT B:
UNAF (2) + WAFU A & B (6): Egypt, Niger, Sao Tomé, Guinea, Liberia, Guinea Bissau
