The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has clarified that Nigeria’s U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, has not yet qualified for the 2025 U-17 AFCON, scheduled to take place in Morocco from March 30 to April 19.
This follows recent speculations about the team’s qualification despite their failure to secure a ticket during the WAFU B qualifiers in Ghana last year.
CAF released details about the 25th edition of the tournament, which has expanded to 16 teams, and confirmed that while Mali has qualified, Nigeria has not.
The organization noted that both Mali and Nigeria have each appeared in 10 finals tournaments since 1995, the most of any nation.
As of now, ten countries have already qualified: Egypt, Morocco, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, and Zambia.
Six more teams will be selected to complete the 16-team lineup. Nigeria finished third in the 2024 WAFU B U-17 Championship but missed out on automatic qualification.
The tournament will serve as a qualifier for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar, a competition Nigeria has won five times.
