Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule was applied, and if still tied, the penalty shoot-out (no extra time) was used to determine the winner.
Entrants
A total of 52 CAF member associations remained eligible to enter the qualification after Morocco automatically qualified as the World Cup host and Ghana was barred from competing in this age category due to a ban imposed for cheating during the 2022 qualifiers.[2]
Only 28 teams including nine teams who did not participate in the previous edition, entered the competition. Teams that did not enter the qualification were listed below. The following teams with asterisks are the teams that never entered the qualification.
The draw for the qualifiers was held on 12 December 2024 at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[3]
The 28 teams were seeded into six pots based on their performance at the qualifying tournament of the previous edition, decided by the round each team reached in the last edition, with ties in round decided by the number of points obtained in that particular round, the best goal difference, the highest goals scored, and the away goals. Geographical conditions were also considered, grouping neighboring zones together.
The three teams that qualified for the World Cup were exempt from the first round along with the highest-ranked non-qualified team Burundi, and were automatically seeded into ties in the second round. The qualification rankings from the previous edition are shown in parentheses, except for teams that did not participate which will be denoted by (–), and teams that participated but withdrew before playing are denoted by (w/o).
Benin won on walkover and advanced to the second round after Congo withdrew before the first leg citing financial and institutional constraints beyond their federation control.[6]
1 2 With the score 12–1 in favor of South Africa at half time the match was abandoned as Gabon were was unable to field the minimum of 6 players, Gabon started the match with a total of 10 players, including substitutes, due to most of their squad being ineligible for the qualifiers because of age restriction rules. During the first half, their goalkeeper sustained an injury, further reducing the team to 9 players.
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Ange Tazanou
Nomfundo Nzuza
Agnes Nabukenya 
