Women AFCON qualifiers: CAF unveils pairings

The headquarters of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo, Egypt, on Monday hosted the draw for the qualification series that saw a record of 45 member associations taking part. According to the CAF media channel, Morocco, the host country of the final tournament will qualify automatically as hosts, leaving 44 teams to take part in the qualifiers. It will be the first edition organized under the format of 12 teams. CAF Senior Manager for Women Football and Futsal, Heba Sarwat, conducted the draw, assisted by Egyptian footballer, Nadine Ghazy. Following are the draw results: First round M1 – Uganda v Ethiopia M2 – Kenya v South Sudan M3 – Eritrea v Burundi M4 – Djibouti v Rwanda M5 – Malawi v Zambia M6 – Tanzania v Namibia M7 – Zimbabwe v Eswatini M8 – Angola v Botswana M9 – Mozambique v South Africa M10 Algeria v Sudan M11 Egypt v Tunisia M12 – Equatorial Guinea v DR Congo M13 – Sao Tome and Principe v Togo M14 – Congo v Gabon M15 – Central African Republic v Cameroon M16 – Sierra Leone v Gambia M17 – Liberia v Senegal M18 – Mali v Guinea M19 – Guinea Bissau v Mauritania M20 – Burkina Faso v Benin M21 – Nigeria v Ghana M22 – Niger v Cote d’Ivoire Second Round Winner M1 v Winner M2 Winner M3 v Winner M4 Winner M5 v Winner M6 Winner M7 v Winner M8 Winner M9 v Winner M10 Winner M11 v Winner M12 Winner M13 v Winner M14 Winner M15 v Winner M16 Winner M17 v Winner M18 Winner M19 v Winner M20 Winner M21 v Winner M22 Aggregate winners qualify to join hosts Morocco in the final tournament. This will be the 12th edition of the Africa Women Cup of Nations (14th edition if tournaments without hosts are included). The biennial international football championship is organised by CAF for the women’s national teams of Africa. The tournament will be held on dates within the FIFA Women’s International Match Calendar in either July–August or October–November 2022. The tournament also doubles as the African qualifiers for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The top four teams in Morocco will qualify for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and two more teams will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs. Nigeria are the three-time defending champions, having won the tournament in 2014, 2016 and 2018. The 2020 edition, which would have been the first to feature 12 teams, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.