Nigeria, six others get first-round pass for 2026 WAFCON qualifiers

Nigeria has been exempted from the first-round of the qualifying series for the 2026 African Women’s Cup of Nations, which will be hosted by Morocco for the third consecutive time.

Nigeria is the record title holder of the championship, which was won by South Africa in 2022.

And so, the Super Falcons, alongside the other top six ranked African teams: South Africa, Morocco, Zambia, Ghana, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire, have received a pass to the second round of the qualifiers.

However, the Super Falcons will meet the winner of the preliminary round tie involving Benin Republic and Sierra Leone in the second-round of the qualifying series.

In the programme for the championship announced by CAF yesterday, 38 countries were listed for the preliminaries for the tournament, four fewer than the number that began the process for the 2024 edition.

Each side will play two rounds of home and away ties to decide which 11 teams will join the host nation at WAFCON 2026.

The first qualifying round will hold in February 2025, with the second round in October next year.

CAF is yet to announce the dates of the tournament.

Botswana and DR Congo have qualified for the delayed 2024 finals, but could both be missing from the 2026 edition after being handed a tricky draw.

They will face each other in the first round of preliminaries, and the winners will then meet reigning continental champions, South Africa.

The delayed 2024 WAFCON finals are scheduled to hold in Morocco from July 5 to 26, next year, having been pushed back because of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The timing of the 12-team tournament was only announced in June.

In yesterday’s draws, Angola was pitted against Zimbabwe, Malawi will meet Congo-Brazzaville, it is Botswana versus DR Congo,