Africa Women Cup of Nations


The Total Africa Women Cup of Nations is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Confederation of African Football. It was first contested in 1991, but was not held biennially until 1998. Nigeria is the most successful nation in the tournament's history, having won a record 10 titles, meaning they have won all but two of the previous tournaments. The two tournaments not won by Nigeria were both won by Equatorial Guinea. For both those times, Equatorial Guinea hosted the competition. Ghana hosted the tournament in 2018.
The competition has served as a qualifying tournament for the FIFA Women's World Cup every other tournament since its inception in 1991.

History

In 2000, hosts South Africa met three-time champions Nigeria in the final game of the tournament. After Nigeria finished the first half ahead 1–0, Nigeria's Stella Mbachu scored a second goal in the 72nd minute and the home crowd realized there was no coming back. Supporters began hurling bottles and other debris at officials and Nigerian players. The match was abandoned after three attempts at restarts were all interrupted by further disturbances. Riot police began fighting battles with bottle-throwing supporters about 40 minutes after the goal had been allowed, throwing tear gas into the crowd to break up the disturbance. The game and the tournament were awarded to Nigeria. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Nomination

On 6 August 2015, the CAF Executive Committee decided to change the name of the tournament from the African Women's Championship to the Africa Women Cup of Nations, similar to the men's version, Africa Cup of Nations.

Sponsorship

In July 2016, Total has secured an eight-year sponsorship package from the Confederation of African Football to support 10 of its principal competitions. Due to this sponsorship, the Africa Women Cup of Nations is named "Total Africa Women Cup of Nations".

Results

Note: abd – match abandoned in the 73rd minute

Statistics

Performance by nation

General statistics

Top scorers (Golden boot) by year

Best player (Golden ball) by year

Hat-tricks

Participating nations

;Legend