2002 African Women's Championship


The 2002 Women's African Football Championship was the fifth edition of the African Women's Championship, the biennial international football championship organised by the Confederation of African Football for the women's national teams of Africa. It was held in Nigeria between 7 December and 20 December 2002.
The tournament determined the CAF's two qualifiers for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup — the winner Nigeria and the runner-up Ghana. Nigeria won its fifth title, beating Ghana 2–0 in the final.

Host selection

In January 2001, the Botswana Football Association had confirmed that the country has submitted a bid to host the tournament. It is unknown if they withdrew from bidding later.
Nigeria were elected as hosts in March 2002 after there were no serious takers for the tournament. Nigerian officials were approached by the CAF at the 2002 African Cup of Nations finals in Mali and were keen to host the tournament. Nigeria had hosted the tournament previously, in 1998.

Qualification

qualified automatically as both hosts and defending champions, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualifying rounds, which took place from August to October 2002.

Format

Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still level, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner.
The seven winners of the final round qualified for the final tournament.

Qualified teams

and Mali made their first appearances in the tournament.
TeamQualified asQualified onPrevious appearances in tournament1
Hosts and defending champions19 March 20024
Winners against DR Congo11 October 20021
Winners against Morocco11 October 2002Debut
Winners against Zambia12 October 20023
Winners against Gabon12 October 20023
Winners against Senegal12 October 20024
Winners against Uganda13 October 2002Debut
Winners against Tanzania13 October 20021

Officials

The following referees were named for the tournament:
The eight teams were divided into two groups of four teams each. The top two teams in the groups advanced to the semi-finals. The finalists of the tournament qualified for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup in the United States.
The teams were ranked according to points.

Results

Group stage

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time is played and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner, except for the third place match where no extra time is played.

Semi-finals

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Third-place playoff

Final

The match was held up for about 5 minutes after fans pelted a linesman with sachets of water after Alberta Sackey had not been given offside.

Awards

Statistics

Team statistics

Goalscorers

;4 goals
;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
;Unknown goalscorers
The following two teams from CAF qualified for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup.
TeamQualified onPrevious appearances in tournament1
17 December 20021
18 December 20023