Women's Africa Cup of Nations

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, known for its acronym WAFCON or as TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is a soccer tournament for women organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The competition takes place every two years and welcomes up to 12 teams and had its first edition in 1998, following initial efforts to create a women’s tournament in 1991. The competition is also used to determine the teams that play in subsequent editions of the Women’s World Cup.

The tournament is usually played by twelve teams, who fight for the honor of representing their continent in the closest edition of the Women’s World Cup taking place after the tournament. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) draws all twelve teams into three groups of four, where each squad faces its rivals once.

The top two teams from each group reach the final stage, which are joined by the two best third-placed squads. The eight teams then are seeded and proceed to play one-off matches, with those reaching the semifinals being the teams that get to play in the World Cup. Since it gives access to a FIFA-sanctioned tournament, the WAFCON also sees a third-place match being held.

Added to the proper bracket to determine the champion, the competition also includes an extra round known as repechage, which is used to hand out two spots to play in FIFA’s inter-confederation playoffs, where up to three teams qualify to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Speaking of the teams involved in the tournament over the years, Nigeria has become a dominant force in WAFCON history, which led to the point where the Super Falcons won five editions of the competition in a row.