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.
