Let's see how many withdraw this year. PRELIMINARY ROUND(Oct. 13 & 25) Libya vs. Djibouti Sierra Leone vs. Gambia Zambia vs. Botswana Ethiopia vs. Kenya Mali vs. Algeria FIRST ROUND(Dec. 1 & 15) Libya/Djibouti winner vs. Tunisia Sierra Leone/Gambia winner vs. Ghana Zambia/Botswana winner vs. South Africa Morocco vs. Equatorial Guinea Ethiopia/Kenya winner vs. Nigeria Mali/Algeria winner vs. Cameroon Final Round(Feb. 2 & 16)
Kenya and Libya also withdrew. Djibouti and Ethiopia advance. Still no other info on the other two matches, but I'm assuming someone form each withdrew.
October 15 Gambia 3 - Sierra Leone 0 Zambia 5 - Botswana 2 FIRST ROUND(Dec. 1 & 15) Djibouti vs. Tunisia Sierra Leone/Gambia winner vs. Ghana Zambia/Botswana winner vs. South Africa Morocco vs. Equatorial Guinea Ethiopia vs. Nigeria Algeria vs. Cameroon
link: http://jwsports1.com/sixteen-nations-confirm-participation-in-caf-u-17-womens-world-cup-qualifiers/
Second legs: Oct. 27 Botswana 4 - Zambia 0 Botswana advances on 6-5 aggr. Gambia vs. Sierra Leone - Sierra Leone withdrew due to lack of funds to travel to Gambia. Gambia advances FIRST ROUND (Dec. 1 & 15) Djibouti vs. Tunisia - Tunisia w/d Gambia vs. Ghana Botswana vs. South Africa Morocco vs. Equatorial Guinea Ethiopia vs. Nigeria Algeria vs. Cameroon FINAL ROUND (Feb. 2 & 16) Djibouti vs. Gambia/Ghana winner Botswana/South Africa winner vs. Morocco/Equatorial Guinea winner Ethiopia/Nigeria winner vs. Algeria/Cameroon winner Winners qualify for 2018 U-17 WWC.
In the first match, I guess the winner should be hands down Ghana. Not sure about what's the exact Equatorial Guinea's situation anymore: have they any problem with their players, at youth level, as they did at Senior level? Anyway, I can see South Africa easily win the second match. Maybe, the most hard-fought one could be the third one, although I am not sure if Cameroon can really pose a problem to Nigeria.
Dec. 1 South Africa 5 - Botswana 2 Cameroon 4 - Algeria 0 Morocco vs. Equatorial Guinea - Equatorial Guinea w/d Dec. 2 Ghana vs. Gambia Dec. 3 Nigeria vs. Ethiopia
TODAY Ethiopia 1 - Nigeria 1 SECOND LEGS: Dec. 15 Ghana vs. Gambia South Africa vs. Botswana Nigeria vs. Ethiopia Dec. 17 Cameroon vs. Algeria FINAL ROUND(Feb. 2 & 16) Djibouti vs. Gambia/Ghana winner Botswana/South Africa winner vs. Morocco Ethiopia/Nigeria winner vs. Algeria/Cameroon winner
Dec. 16 Ghana 2 - Gambia 0 Ghana advances on 7-1 aggr. South Africa 6 - Botswana 4 South Africa advances on 11-6 aggr. Nigeria 0 - Ethiopia 0 Aggr. tied 1-1; Nigeria advances on away goals. Cameroon 7 - Algeria 0 Cameroon advances on 11-0 aggr. FINAL ROUND(Feb. 2 & 16) Djibouti vs. Ghana South Africa vs. Morocco Nigeria vs. Cameroon
FIFA twitter is quite active Attention turns to #U17WWC qualifying this weekend in @CAF_Online following the completion of #U20WWC https://t.co/vFnS47XEfe— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) January 31, 2018 958762134376239104 is not a valid tweet id
I was pretty sure Djibouti would withdraw. I'm happy to see they haven't. Hoping Morocco doesn't withdraw, either.
Pending an exceptional event Ghana will make the U17 WWC 2018 Fifa U-17 Women's World Cup Qualifiers: Ghana's Maidens post solid 9-0 win over Djibouti - https://t.co/RgBuQwd8vs via @FootyGhana pic.twitter.com/PKeF5UUnjc— FootyAfrica (@FootyAfric) February 2, 2018
I was more thinking on the line of an ineligible player being fielded as it has happened in the past in Africa.
Feb. 17 South Africa 1 - Morocco 0 South Africa advances on 6 - 1 aggr. Feb. 18 Ghana 10 - Djibouti 0 Ghana advances on 19 - 0 aggr. Cameroon 1 - Nigeria 1 Aggr. tied 3 - 3. Cameroon advances on away goals. Ghana, South Africa and Cameroon quality for 2018 U-17 WWC.
Wow, I guess Nigeria being out is huge! They had never done anything special at U-17 WWC, but in general they were always strong at Youth level: two second places and one fourth place in the last 4 editions of U-20 WWC. And I guess, in general, they had qualified in the past for most of women's World competions at any level. Edit: in retrospect I was more right than I even thought, when I wrote this: