African champions Nigeria Super Falcons will face either Sudan or Comoros in the second round of the African qualifiers for the women’s football tournament at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, www.aclsports.com reports.
The draw, held on Wednesday, 29 April 2026 at the headquarters of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo, placed Nigeria among the top-seeded teams that enter the competition at the second-round stage.
They will meet the winner of the first-round tie between Sudan and Comoros, with those fixtures scheduled for 1–9 June 2026. The Super Falcons will begin their qualifying campaign between 5–13 October 2026 as they target one of Africa’s two available places at the Olympic Games.
Ranked among the continent’s elite, Nigeria are one of several top-seeded teams given a bye into the second round, alongside South Africa and Ghana.
The qualification series features 35 teams and will be played across five knockout rounds on a home-and-away basis. The six lowest-ranked sides will contest the first round, with the three winners progressing to join the top-seeded nations and other teams who received byes in the second round. The competition will gradually narrow down through successive rounds.
The format will reduce the field from 35 teams to two, with the final round scheduled for November–December 2027 to determine Africa’s representatives at the Olympic Games, which will take place from 11–29 July 2028 in Los Angeles.
Elsewhere in the draw, several standout second-round fixtures include Tunisia vs Senegal, Benin vs Mali, and Congo vs Morocco. Other ties see Cameroon face Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire take on DR Congo, and Zambia meet Uganda, highlighting the depth of competition across the continent.
Nigeria will be aiming to build on their return to Olympic football at the Paris 2024 Games, where they qualified after a 16-year absence. However, the Super Falcons were eliminated in the group stage after facing Japan, Spain and Brazil.
With the road to Los Angeles now set, Nigeria will focus on navigating the qualifiers and re-establishing themselves as a force on the Olympic stage.
