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 played in Morocco for the third consecutive time.^[2]

Nigeria are the defending champions.

On 17 October 2024, Morocco were confirmed as hosts for the third consecutive time,^[3] 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.

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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.^[6][7] 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.^[8] Subsequent reports indicated that CAF was nonetheless considering expansion.^[9] 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.^[10]

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.^[11]

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.

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.^[12]

• Official website