Africa’s premier women’s football competition, the TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) Morocco 2026, will kick off in Rabat.
The opening day of the competition is scheduled for 26 July at Moulay El Hassan Stadium, where hosts Morocco will face East African side Kenya. The match will kick off at 21h00 local time (20h00 GMT). Earlier that day, Algeria will face Senegal in the other Group A match at Rabat’s Olympic Stadium, with kick-off scheduled for 18h00 local time (17h00 GMT).
In its 14th edition, Africa’s premier women’s football tournament continues to reflect the significant progress made in the women’s game across the continent, underpinned by CAF’s strategic commitment to increased investment in women’s football.
CAF, the Confederation of African Football, has made significant progress in growing and developing women’s football. Over the last five years, the prize money for the winners of the competition has increased from $150,000 to $1 million under CAF President Patrice Motsepe.
The 2026 edition of WAFCON sees a historic expansion from 12 to 16 teams participating nations for the first time.
The expansion forms part of CAF’s broader women’s football strategy to strengthen the women’s game through increased participation opportunities, enhanced competition structures and greater investment in football development across the continent.
The 16 nations that have qualified for the tournament are Morocco (hosts), Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria (defending champions), Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.
The competition will be staged across the cities of Rabat and Casablanca, with five CAF-approved venues selected to host matches and official training activities. The venues are Stade Moulay El Hassan, Stade Al Madina and Stade Olympique in Rabat, as well as Stade Larbi Zaouli and Stade Moulay Rachid in Casablanca.
Defending champions Nigeria enter the tournament seeking to retain the title after winning a record-extending 10th continental crown at the previous edition.
However, the Super Falcons are expected to face strong competition from across the continent, including hosts Morocco, former champions South Africa, traditional powerhouses such as Cameroon and emerging contenders including Algeria, Zambia, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire.
In this edition, Egypt will be returning to WAFCON since exiting from the first round in their first participation in the 2016 edition. Since then, the Egyptians have been absent from WAFCON, until this year, where they managed to secure a place after CAF increased the number of participating teams.
In preparations for the WAFCON, the Egyptian Cleopatras have been preparing for this edition under the supervision of head coach Mohamed Kamal, with whom the team has played several friendly home and away matches against African and Asian teams including Tunisia, Algeria in Cairo and Saudi Arabia in Abha, and Tunisia and Algeria in Cairo. The Cleopatras will also play against Senegal on 8 and 11 July.
Adding further significance, this year’s finals will serve as Africa’s qualification tournament for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil 2027.
The four quarter-final winners will secure automatic qualification to the global showpiece, while the four teams eliminated at that stage will remain in contention through the FIFA Women’s World Cup play-off pathway.
With continued investment in women’s football across Africa and the growing competitiveness of national teams, the TotalEnergies CAF WAFCON Morocco 2026 is expected to be one of the most closely contested editions in the tournament’s history.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 2 July, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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