Two teams could qualify from this tournament for the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup (originally 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic) in Costa Rica as the CAF representatives.[1]
This edition of the tournament also doubles as the qualifiers for the 2023 African Games in Accra, Ghana where teams who reached the fourth round qualified automatically.
Draw
A total of 40 (out of 54) CAF member national teams entered the qualifying rounds. The draw was held on 10 May 2021 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
[2]
In the first round, the 16 teams were drawn into 8 ties, with teams divided into five pots based on their geographical zones and those in the same pot drawn to play against each other.
In the second round, the 8 first round winners and the 24 teams receiving byes to the second round were allocated into 16 ties based on the first round tie numbers, with eight first round winners playing against the eight teams receiving byes, and the other 16 first round winners playing against each other.
In the third round, the 16 second round winners were allocated into eight ties based on the second round tie numbers.
In the fourth round, the eight third round winners were allocated into four ties based on the third round tie numbers.
In the fifth round, the four fourth round winners were allocated into two ties based on the fourth round tie numbers
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 would be applied, and if still tied, the penalty shoot-out (no extra time) would be used to determine the winner.[3]