Golden Eaglets Of Nigeria Fail To Qualify For 2025 Under-17 AFCON, World Cup

The Golden Eaglets of Nigeria have failed to qualify for the 2025 Under-17 AFCON in Ivory Coast despite beating Ghana in the Under-17 WAFU B championship in the losers’ final on Tuesday, May 28.

The Golden Eaglets went into the 2024 WAFU B championship as favourites to win the tournament because they were the defending champions of the competition.

Unfortunately, they suffered a 1-0 defeat in the semi-final stage of the competition against Ivory Coast. Hence, they had to settle for the losers’ final against the Starlets of Ghana who they beat 3-2.

Before the losers’ final, it wasn’t clear whether the Golden Eaglets would qualify for the 2025 under-17 AFCON which serves as a pathway for the 2025 under-17 World Cup in Qatar.

But a statement from the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) confirmed that the Golden Eaglets didn’t qualify for the AFCON despite finishing third in the WAFU B championship.

“The Confederation of African Football has clarified that next year’s Africa U-17 Cup of Nations will still have 12 finalists in attendance, as against the minimum of 16 teams being projected by African football enthusiasts”, a statement from the NFF reads.

“This means that despite defeating host nation Ghana in Tuesday’s third-place match of the WAFU B U-17 Championship, the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria have not qualified for the finals.”

This also implies that the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria have no room to qualify for the 2025 under-17 World Cup in Qatar since the under-17 AFCON is the only way for African countries to qualify for the global football competition.