EXCLUSIVE: Super Falcons lead other women’s teams in consecutive African Cup titles

**Only team to win  WAFCON trophy for keep three times

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

With no fewer than 10th African titles, in fact, 12th in all should the 1991 and 1995 feats are added together, Nigeria’s senior women’s football team, Super Falcons, are the numero uno (number one) in consecutive African Cup title win.

This is even as Super Falcons are the only team in Africa to win the WAFCON trophy for keeps three times. It is also the only women’s national team in any sports in Nigeria especially in team sports like basketball, handball, cricket, etc, to lift five consecutive African titles.

Prompt News investigations revealed that  only the newly crowned African champions, Super Falcons of Nigeria have the bragging rights of winning the coveted Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) trophy seven consecutive times dating back to 1991, including five straight wins since the Confederation of African Football (CAF), introduced WAFCON in 1998.

 A breakdown of the seven consecutive triumph of Super Falcons over rivals showed that the team emerged African champions in 1991 beating Ghana, Guinea and Cameroon on the way to qualify for the maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup final in China as the sole African representative.

The team also repeated the feat in 1995 when the Super Falcons defeated every opposition including South Africa’s Banyana Banyana to qualify as the only team that represented the African continent in the 2nd FIFAWWC in Sweden.

Fast forward to 1998 when CAF in its wisdom introduced the biennial women’s football tournament tagged Africa Women Championship (AWC) now WAFCON, Super Falcons did not disappoint as the team rose to the occasion by dismantling Morocco 8-0 in the opening match of the new tournament on October 17, 1998 at Ranchers Bees stadium in Kaduna and went on to beat Ghana 2-0 in the epic final played at Gateway now Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta, Ogun state on Saturday, October 31, 1998.

The Super Falcons took it a notch further by scoring a whopping 28 goals in the debut tournament without conceding a single goal in the process even as the team swept all the individual awards compiled by the sports writers who covered the competition in Nigeria.

Since the inception of the tournament in 1998, the Super Falcons have won 10 times out of the 13 times that the event organised by CAF has held namely 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, and now 2024 edition, missing the trophy only thrice in 2008, 2012–won by Equatorial Guinea, and in 2022–lefted by South Africa.

Prior to the 2024 WAFCON in Morocco, the Super Falcons interim manager, Justin Madugu had declared that the team was going on a *Mission X*, that is to win the trophy for a record 10th time. That singular task was executed on Saturday, July 26, 2025 at the fans-packed  Olympique de Rabat.

It is worthy of note that Super Falcons have retired WAFCON trophy twice and counting as the team won it in 1998, 2000 and 2002 to retire the first CAF Gold Cup donated by Nigeria’s ex-First Lady Mrs.Maryam Sani Abacha ahead of the 1998 maiden edition of WAFCON.

CAF now donated a new  trophy when South Africa  hosted in 2004 which Nigeria won and retained in 2006 before Equatorial Guinea snapped it in 2008 edition on home soil but Nigeria again lifted it in 2010 in South Africa to win the particular trophy three times but not in a row.

However, CAF donated another trophy in 2012 WAFCON with Equatorial Guinea winning it first before Nigeria returned to the winning ways to lift the new CAF cup in 2014, 2016 and 2018 consecutively to retire the 3rd CAF trophy but it was not changed until the 13th edition in Morocco where CAF deemed it befitting to unveil a new brand WAFCON trophy which the Super Falcons have again been the first team in the continent to lift it to show their total dominance of African women’s football competition.

Till date, Super Falcons’ record-setting 8-0 thrashing  of the hapless Atlas Lionesses of Morocco in 1998 has not been broken as the five-straight trophy win and 10th WAFCON titles achieved by the team over the years, will take several decades before any country in Africa will equal it.