Bantwana’s and Basetsana’s Women’s World Cup qualifiers announced

The draw for the u17 and u20 Confederation of African Football  (Caf) | Fifa Women’s World Cup qualifiers was held at Caf headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday.

The u17 South African team, known as “Bantwana”, will face Gabon in the initial round of the qualifiers.

Bantwana’s home game takes place over the weekend of 10-12 January 2025, with the away match following a week later, on the weekend of 17-19 January.

The South African u17 side will be desperate to get by the Gabonese after missing out on qualification for the 2024 Fifa Women’s World Cup, which was held in the Dominican Republic in November.

The African representatives were Kenya, who qualified for the event for the first time, Nigeria, who made a seventh appearance at the event, and Zambia, who qualified for the second time. Nigeria made it to the quarterfinals, where the five-time African champions fell to the United States, who went on to finish third.

North Korea won the tournament for a third time, beating Spain 4-3 on penalties in the final after the sides had finished regulation time level at 1-1.

The Fifa u17 Women’s World Cup will take place from 17 October to 8 November 2025, with Morocco hosting the ninth edition of the event. It will be the first time that it is played in Africa.

Seven teams out of 24, including the host nation, Morocco, have already qualified. The others are New Zealand, Samoa, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and China.

The qualifying competitions that are still to be concluded include the CAF u17 Women’s World Cup Qualification 2025, Concacaf Women’s Qualifiers 2025, Conmebol Sub u17 Femenino 2025, and the Uefa Women’s u17 Championship 2024/25.

South Africa’s u20 women’s team, “Basetsana”, takes on the country’s neighbours, Eswatini, in the first leg of qualifying for the 2026 FIFA u20 Women’s World Cup. Their first match will be played on the weekend of 9-11 May 2025, with the second following on the weekend of 16-18 May.

South Africa missed out on qualification for the 2024 Fifa u20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia. The 24 finalists included four African sides: Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, and Nigeria.

The best of the African countries were Cameroon and Nigeria, who were eliminated in the round of 16. Cameroon went down to Brazil 1-3 after extra time, with the Brazilians bowing out 0-1 to North Korea in the quarterfinals. Nigeria lost 1-2 to the runners-up, Japan. Like their u-17 team, North Korea won the title, edging out Japan 1-0 in the final.

The next Fifa u20 Women’s World Cup takes place in Poland in August 2026.

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Siya Pongco

A passionate reader and dedicated writer, Siya possesses three degrees from Rhodes University including a Postgraduate Diploma at Rhodes University. He also played amateur cricket and soccer, both during his university years. While honing his journalism skills at Grocott’s Mail in Makhanda, he developed a profound interest in the community’s response to crime. Additionally, he covered topics such as art/culture and student politics at Rhodes University in 2022. In his spare time, Siya can be found exploring galleries, dining at restaurants, indulging in literature, taking photographs or savouring his favourite dish, spaghetti.

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