**With FIFA Women’s World Cup Tickets At Stake
By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The 14th edition of the biggest women’s football competition in Africa, Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will kick-off today (Sunday). It will hold from July 26 to August 16, 2026.
The tournament which doubles as the African qualifiers for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil will take place in two cities of the Kingdom of Morocco namely Rabat and Casablanca while five venues will host the matches.
They venues are Moulay Hassan Stadium, Rabat; Olympic Stadium, Rabat, and
Al Medina Stadium, Rabat as well as Larbi Zaouli Stadium, Casablanca, and
Moulay Rachid Stadium, Casablanca.
This edition of the competition featuring 16 teams for the first time have been divided into four groups with Group A comprising
Algeria, Kenya, Morocco (host) and Senegal; Group B has Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, South Africa and Tanzania.
In Group C are Egypt, Malawi, Nigeria, and Zambia while Cameroon, Cape Verde, Ghana and Mali are in Group D.
The opening day of WAFCON 2026 on Sunday will see Group A rivals Algeria and Senegal clash at Olympic Stadium in Rabat by 6 pm Nigerian time while hosts Morocco tales on Kenya at El Hassan Stadium in Rabat by 8 pm Nigerian time.
Infact, the kick-off marks the start of a race to the title on WAFCON title on August 16, and also for a place at the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, with the four semi-finalists to book their ticket.
CAF competition rule for the tournament will see the top two teams in each group of four advance to the quarter-finals, after which the competition continues in a straight knockout format.
However, the four teams that lose their quarter-finals will have to hang around for a 2027 FIFA World Cup qualification play-off against European, Asian, Oceania, North or South American Confederation opposition.
The loser of quarter-final 1 (Winner Group A vs Runner-up Group B) will play the loser of quarter-final 4 (Winner Group D vs Runner-up Group C), and the loser of quarter-final 2 (Winner Group B vs Runner-up Group A) will take on the loser of quarter-final 3 (Winner Group C vs Runner-up Group D).
The two winners in those play-off fixtures will advance to FIFA’s inter-continental play-offs, where they will challenge for three more berths at the World Cup.
However, the usual suspects Nigeria’s Super Falcons are back to the hunting ground in Morocco. Past winners, Nigeria have claimed a record 10 WAFCON titles, including the last one 9when the tournament was also played in Morocco in 2025. This will in fact be the third edition in a row to be hosted in the North African country.
Equatorial Guinea, with their host of hastily nationalized Nigerians and Brazilians, lifted the trophy on home soil in 2008 and 2012. Since that racket was put to a stop after suffering bans by CAF and FIFA the country have qualified for only one single tournament in 2018 in Ghana, where they lost all three group matches, scoring one goal and conceding 18.
Republic of South Africa is the only other nation to lift the WAFCON trophy, which they managed in the 2022 edition, finally ending a run of four losses in the final.
Indeed, Nigeria is unmatched in the history of WAFCON as the West African nation has set records in every area of the biggest women’s football fiesta in Africa.
She holds the biggest margin of victory at a WAFCON finals match is the 8-0 whitewash of Morocco in the opening game for both teams in the group stage of the 1998 African Women’s Championship, which was hosted in Kaduna, Nigeria.
She also holds the record for the most team goals in a single tournament as they netted 28 times in five matches on their way to lifting the trophy in 1998. The Super Falcons did not concede a single goal in the competition with legendary goalkeeper Ann Agumanu-Chiejine in goal throughout.
Nigeria and South Africa are the only nations to appear in every edition of the WAFCON since it was first staged in its current format in 1998.
Since its debut, Nigeria have reached WAFCON semi-finals, at least, in all 13 of their appearances. They have been to 10 finals and won every single one of them. They have finished third once and fourth twice.
Also, Nigeria boasts of the youngest goalscorer at WAFCON finals in Desire Ugochi Oparanozie, who was 16 years, 325 days when she netted against Tanzania in 2010.
Other records set by Nigeria and Nigerian players are the most goals scored at the WAFCON finals by an individual player which is 34 by 4-time African Best Player of the Year Perpetua Nkwocha.
The Imo state-born African legend also holds the record for most goals scored in a single finals tournament with 11 in 2010, and the joint record for most goals scored in a single match (4 vs Cameroon in 2004).
She shares that record with compatriot and Record African Best Footballer Award Winner Asisat Lamina Oshoala (4 vs Mali in 2016) just as Nkwocha is also the oldest goalscorer when she netted against Zambia aged 38 years, 284 days in 2014.
Other records recorded in WAFCON include Cameroon and Ghana holding the record for most appearances in the deciding WAFCON final matches without lifting the trophy with three finals each while Morocco have lost the last two WAFCON finals on the home turf.
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However, the most goals scored in a single WAFCON finals game is nine goals when Ghana defeated Zimbabwe 6-3 in 2000 edition.
Debutants Cape Verde and Malawi will bring to 29 the number of nations who have competed at the finals since 1998 while the most goals scored in a single WAFCON tournament is 66 netted in the 2024 edition, which was played in 2025 in Morocco.
Meanwhile, the 14th edition of WAFCON will be highly contested because eight out of the 16 teams that qualified for the tournament reached the quarter-finals stage last year. They are Nigeria (Champions), Morocco (Runner-up), Ghana (3rd Place), South Africa, Senegal, Mali, Algeria and Zambia.
They are joined by experienced WAFCON campaigners Cameroon, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Egypt,
Kenya, Burkina Faso,
and Tanzania, leaving debutants Malawi and Cape Verde the only outsiders when hostilities start on Sunday in Morocco.
There is no doubt that the expansion of the competition by CAF have given the so-called minors the opportunity to throw up surprises when the tournament starts
The Super Falcons of Nigeria, 10-time champions, will take to pitch on Tuesday at Al Madina Stadium, Rabat against newcomers Malawi in the proverbial “David and Goliath” contest.
Let the fireworks start.
