Nigeria’s U-17 head coach, Manu Garba, has criticised the Confederation of African Football (CAF) over what he describes as an unfair distribution of qualification slots for the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.
His comments followed Nigeria’s 2-0 defeat to Ghana in the WAFU Zone B semi-finals in Ivory Coast.
A result that ended their hopes of reaching the 2026 U-17 AFCON and the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Garba, who guided Nigeria to World Cup glory in 2013, argued that WAFU Zone B deserves more than the two places currently allocated.
“I am still complaining that it is wrong. Nigeria is still rated number one in the world at the FIFA U-17 level. How can CAF give us just two slots?” he said.
The coach insisted that CAF overlooked WAFU B’s dominance in youth football by granting three slots to WAFU A instead.
He maintained that a minimum of three places should be reserved for WAFU B.
“CAF must look at WAFU B and give us three slots, which will go a long way for Africa too,” Garba added in the post-match interview.
Nigeria is the most successful nation in FIFA U-17 World Cup history with five titles.
However, the West African nation has now missed back-to-back tournaments.
For the 2026 edition, Ghana and Ivory Coast will represent WAFU Zone B.
