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The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) finals will expand from 12 to 16 teams starting from the 2026 edition, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) has announced.<\/b><\/p>\n
Next year’s tournament in Morocco was set to have 12 competing sides, and qualifying for the finals has already reached the second and final round.<\/a><\/p>\n The expansion will likely require a third round of preliminaries to be played, with 11 remaining nations competing for four spots.<\/p>\n Caf is expected to announce further details after discussions at its executive committee meeting being held in Kinshasa.<\/p>\n Wafcon was an eight-team tournament from its first edition in 1998 until the 2018 finals in Ghana.<\/p>\n The 2020 Wafcon was scrapped because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the competition returned with 12 sides in 2022.<\/p>\n Caf has invested in order to improve women’s football on the continent, with this year’s tournament in Morocco seeing a 45% increase in the overall prize pot to $3.45m (\u00a32.6m).<\/p>\n Champions Nigeria were handed $1m (\u00a3750,000) after winning a record-extending 10th Wafcon title.<\/a><\/p>\n “I am pleased with the progress we’ve made in women’s African football,” Caf president Patrice Motsepe said.<\/p>\n “Part of my starting point is making sure [men and women] are paid well and they can make a career out of football.<\/p>\n “I can assure you women’s football will continue to improve because that is an area we are focussing on a lot.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n