WAFCON 2026: Early Contenders, Pretenders Emerge After Round One Matches

By Harry Awurumibe, Africa’s No.1 Women Football Journalist

Early contenders for the coveted 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) trophy have emerged after the conclusion of the first round of matches by all the 16 countries in the ongoing 14th edition of Africa’s premier women’s football tournament in Morocco.

Surprisingly, the defending champions Nigeria is not among the countries in the race for the WAFCON trophy and also the four automatic tickets for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in Brazil after the 10-time champions were beaten 3-2 by debutants Malawi in their opening Group C match on Tuesday night in Rabat.

The eight front-runners after the first round of matches are hosts Morocco and Algeria with a win and three points each in Group A while Ivory Coast and Tanzania that won their opening matches are leading in Group B.

Also Zambia and Malawi that defeated Nigeria in the first round game on Tuesday are leading Group C just as Ghana and Cameroon are early leaders in Group D.

Interestingly, all the eight front-runners won their opening matches by scoring two or more goals with Zambia running goals riot by walloping harpless Egypt 6-0 in Rabat on Tuesday.

In her opening match, Morocco bashed Kenya 4-0 while Ivory Coast hammered West African neighbours Burkina Faso 4-2 as Algeria beat Senegal 2-0 in the first match of the tournament last Sunday.

Earlier Tanzania had defeated South Africa 2-1 in their opening match; Malawi stunned WAFCON defending and Nigeria 3-2 and yesterday in Casablanca, Ghana defeated debutants Cape Verde 2-0 while Cameroon beat Mali 2-1 in the last first round matches.

As it stands the most decorated team in Africa Nigeria and one-time WAFCON champions South Africa and six others will have to work harder to get their campaigns on track when the second round of matches start today.

Other countries who will be fighting to get back to the winning ways are Senegal and Kenya who will face each other today after they lost their opening matches as a back to back loss for Senegal or Kenya will mean the end of the road for the loser.

In the same vein, others who lost their first round matches and will have to dig deeper to avoid early exit from the competition are Egypt, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Cape Verde.

A second loss by the eight pretenders including Nigeria will mean the loss of the FIFA Women’s World Cup ticket and WAFCON trophy.