{"id":63857,"date":"2025-11-05T18:54:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T18:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams"},"modified":"2025-11-05T19:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:48:10","slug":"wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams","title":{"rendered":"Wafcon 2026 Expands Tournament to 16 Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced an expansion of the Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) from 12 to 16 teams, starting with the next edition scheduled to take place in Morocco from March 17 to April 3, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Originally planned to feature 12 teams, CAF\u2019s Executive Committee has now approved an increase by four, marking a significant milestone in the growth of women\u2019s football across the continent.<\/p>\n<p>The expansion means that Cameroon, Egypt, Ivory Coast, and Mali\u2014who were eliminated in the final qualifying round\u2014will now join the tournament as the best four losers, determined based on FIFA rankings.<\/p>\n<p>They will join the 11 teams that booked their tickets during the final round of qualifiers last week: Nigeria (defending champions), South Africa, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia. Host nation Morocco completes the 16-team lineup.<\/p>\n<p>This will be the third time Morocco is hosting the Women\u2019s AFCON, underscoring the North African nation\u2019s growing influence in African football. Beyond continental glory, the 2025 tournament will also serve as the African qualifiers for the 2027 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup in Brazil, with the top four finishers earning automatic qualification.<\/p>\n<p>The development is another major boost for women\u2019s football on the continent, providing more nations with the opportunity to compete at the highest level and further showcasing the progress made in promoting gender inclusion in African sport.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Morocco will also host the Men\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations later this year, from December 22, 2025, to January 18, 2026, featuring 24 teams.<\/p>\n<p>The dual hosting duties highlight Morocco\u2019s growing reputation as a key hub for African football and CAF\u2019s commitment to expanding participation and visibility across both men\u2019s and women\u2019s competitions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced an expansion of the Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) from 12 to 16 teams, starting with the next edition scheduled to take place in Morocco from March 17 to April 3, 2025. Originally planned to feature 12 teams, CAF\u2019s Executive Committee has now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":63856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-63857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wafcon 2026 Expands Tournament to 16 Teams - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced an expansion of the Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) fro ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wafcon 2026 Expands Tournament to 16 Teams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced an expansion of the Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) fro ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-05T18:54:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-05T19:48:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1762359403.668279.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Wafcon 2026 Expands Tournament to 16 Teams\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-05T18:54:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-05T19:48:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams\"},\"wordCount\":303,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1762359403.668279.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/wafcon-2026-expands-tournament-to-16-teams\",\"name\":\"Wafcon 2026 Expands Tournament to 16 Teams - 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