By Harry Awurumibe
No fewer than 19 African countries including Nigeria, runner-up three years ago in Canada, will this weekend start the battle for the two slots to represent the continent at the final tournament of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup slated for France in 2018.
Prompt News Online can reveal that the African qualification process will begin with a preliminary round scheduled for this weekend of July 21 to 23 while the two teams which will represent Africa will be known in the weekend of January 26 to 28, 2018.
However, Nigeria’s U-20 national women’s team, Falconets has been given a waiver to start its qualification match in the second stanza with a game against Tanzania in the weekend of September 15 to 17, 2017.
Already, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced that only six countries will play in the preliminary competition. They are Burundi, Djibouti, Libya, Sierra Leone, Botswana and Kenya while no fewer than 13 countries will join in the second stage.
Below is the full match schedule as released by CAF:
Preliminary Round:
1. Burundi vs Djibouti
2. Djibouti vs Burundi
3. Libya vs Sierra Leone
4. Sierra Leone vs Libya
5. Botswana vs Kenya
6. Kenya vs Botswana
Dates: Match I : 21, 22 or 23 July 2017
Match II : 4,5 or 6 August 2017
First Round
7. Win 1-2 vs Rwanda
8. Rwanda vs Win 1-2
9. South Africa vs Namibia
10. Namibia vs South Africa
11. Morocco vs Senegal
12. Senegal vs Morocco
13. Nigeria vs Tanzania
14. Tanzania vs Nigeria
15. Tunisia vs Win 3-4
16. Win 3-4 vs Tunisia
17. Guinea vs Cameroon
18. Cameroon vs Guinea
19. Algeria vs Ghana
20. Ghana vs Algeria
21. Ehtiopia vs win 5-6
22. Win 5-6 vs Ethiopia
Dates : Match I : 15,16,or 17 September 2017
Match II : 29, 30 September or 1st October 2017
