The Confederation of African Football, CAF, has announced the participating teams for the football event of the 2024 African Games, with Nigeria’s men and women’s U-20 teams, the Flying Eagles and the Falconets, taking automatic spots.
Ghana will host the 2023 African Games, which is the 13th edition, from March 8 to 23 across three cities — Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast.
The men’s football event will feature the eight quarter-finalists of the CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, Egypt 2023, as well as the host country, Ghana.
Other teams are Benin, Congo, Gambia, Senegal, South Sudan, Tunisia and Uganda.
The Flying Eagles finished third at the 2023 U-20 AFCON in Egypt where Ladan Bosso’s team beat Tunisia 4-0 in the tournament’s third-place match.
For the women’s game, the Falconets also made the cut for the Games having reached the fourth qualifying round of the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica.
The seven other teams that joined Nigeria are hosts Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
The Falconets will hope to defend their title, which they won in Morocco in 2019, with Burkina Faso claiming gold in the men’s event.