2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations

The 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations, commonly referred to as WAFCON 2026, will be the 16th edition of the Women's Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international football championship organised by Confederation of African Football for the women's national teams of Africa.

The tournament will be held in Morocco for the third consecutive tournament becoming the first country to achieve this feat.^[2] Venues in Casablanca, Fez and Rabat will be used for the tournament.

Despite originally being planned to be a 12 team tournament, CAF decided to expand the tournament to 16 teams after qualification ended.^[3] Qualification took place between February and October 2025 to decide who qualified, while hosts Morocco qualified automatically. Cape Verde and Malawi will make their debut.

The tournament also doubled as the African qualifiers for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil. The top four teams will qualify for the World Cup, and two more teams will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Nigeria are the defending champions after beating Morocco 3–2 in the 2024 final in Rabat.

•  Morocco – Morocco expressed an interest in hosting the tournament after organizing the previous two tournaments in 2022 and 2024.
•  Tanzania – In November 2022, Tanzania Football Federation, Wallace Karia, stated they could host the tournament, with venues in Mbeya, Arusha, Tanga, Tabora, Dodoma and Mwanza being touted as possible venues.^[4] This would have been Tanzania's first time hosting and first time the event was held in East Africa.

On 17 October 2024, Morocco were confirmed as hosts for the third consecutive time,^[5] becoming the first country to host three editions in a row and the third overall to host the tournament three times, alongside South Africa and Nigeria.

The South Africa Deputy Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Bertha Peace Mabe, announced on 1 February 2026 that they would host after Morocco withdrew as hosts.^[6] However, the South Africa Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, refuted the claim two days later, stating that Peace Mabe had been misunderstood, that Morocco remained the host, and that South Africa had indicated a willingness to host if necessary.^[7] On 13 February 2026, CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, reaffirmed that Morocco are still the hosts due to the fact that the other nations interested in hosting wanted to change the dates, which the federation strongly opposed.^[8] On 5 March 2026, the CAF announced the tournament was postponed to 25 July – 16 August 2026.^[9]

A total of 39 CAF member nations entered the competition. With hosts Morocco automatically qualified, the remaining 38 teams contested two qualifying rounds to decide the other 11 places in the final tournament.^[10] Chad, who were set to make their debut in WAFCON qualifying, withdrew before the first round due to financial difficulties. Congo withdrew prior to the first leg of the first round due to a lack of competitions and preparation.^[11]

In early October 2025, ahead of the second and final round of qualification, reports emerged suggesting that the tournament would be expanded to 16 teams, though no details were provided regarding potential format changes.^[12][13] However, on 25 October, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) dismissed these claims, clarifying that the qualification process would determine 11 teams to join the hosts.^[14] Subsequent reports indicated that CAF was nonetheless considering expansion.^[15] On 3 November 2025, CAF officially confirmed the expansion from 12 to 16 teams. As the qualification phase for the tournament had already concluded, the four highest-ranked teams based on the FIFA Women's World Ranking of 7 August 2025, among those eliminated in the final qualifying round were selected to complete the list of 16 participating nations.^[16]

Of the 16 qualified teams, 9 had taken part in the 2024 edition, while Botswana, DR Congo and Tunisia missed out, having qualified in 2024. Cape Verde and Malawi both will make their first appearance in the final tournament.^[17]

Note: The statistics only cover the 14 officially recognized editions of the WAFCON. The 1991 and 1995 tournaments, which were held solely as FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifiers, are not included.

During the draw on 15 January 2026, it was announced that two stadiums in Rabat alongside Casablanca and Fez, were the three cities chosen to host the competition.^[2] The Fez Stadium and both stadiums in Rabat hosted the recently concluded 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. The Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Casablanca is the only venue to have previous experience in hosting the women's edition, having been used in 2024.

The final draw was held at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat on 15 January 2026. The 16 qualified teams were seeded into four pots based on the FIFA Women's World Ranking from 11 December 2025, noted in parentheses. Host nation Morocco was automatically assigned position A1, while defending champions Nigeria occupied position C1.^[18][19]

The top two teams of each group will advance to the quarter-finals.

Teams will be ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss).

If two teams are tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria will be applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 74):^[20]

1. Points in head-to-head matches match between the two tied teams;
2. Goal difference in all group matches;
3. Goals scored in all group matches;
4. Drawing of lots.

If more than two teams are tied, the following criteria will be applied instead:

1. Points in matches among the tied teams;
2. Goal difference in matches among the tied teams;
3. Goals scored in matches among the tied teams;
4. If after applying all criteria above, two teams are still tied, the above criteria will be applied only to matches played between the two teams in question. If this does not resolve the tie, the next three criteria will be applied;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Drawing of lots.

The winners of each quarter-final will qualify directly for the 2027 Women's World Cup, while the losers will compete in play-in matches to determine the two African representatives in the inter-confederation play-offs.

The winners will qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup.

The winners will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.

The top four teams in the competition will qualify directly for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil, while two additional teams will have the chance to join them through the inter-confederation playoffs.^[21]

• Official website