WAFCON 2024: A tournament in Morocco nearly forgotten could be the best one yet

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WAFCON 2024: A tournament in Morocco nearly forgotten could be the best one yet
Three years ago, the world welcomed African women's football with a roar. Close to 60,000 Moroccans squeezed into the 53,000-seater Stade Moulay Abdellah in Rabat to watch the women's national team play in their first Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) final.
Morocco lost 2-1 on the night to South Africa after a double from Hildah Magaia, but the genie was out of the bottle. African women's football was here to stay.
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On Saturday, WAFCON returns to Morocco, with the hosts kicking off the 12-team tournament against Zambia. But the footballing landscape is almost unrecognisable from that tournament three years ago.
Since that final in 2022, football on the continent has gone from strength to strength. Morocco and South Africa thrilled at the World Cup in 2023, getting out of the group stage ahead of Germany and Italy respectively. Meanwhile, Zambia's duo of NWSL stars Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji both scored as Zambia won their first points at the World Cup.
All three sides were outshone, though, as the Super Falcons of Nigeria — reeling from a first WAFCON without medalling — beat hosts Australia before taking England to penalties in the round of 16.
In the time since the last WAFCON, Banda, Kundananji and Nigeria's Asisat Oshoala have joined NWSL, others have populated Europe's top leagues and clubs, such as ASFAR Rabat and Mamelodi Sundowns, have pushed the boundaries of club football in the CAF Women's Champions League.
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However, despite the strides, this tournament has been anything but a smooth ride. Taking place a year after it was originally scheduled, and officially called WAFCON 2024, it nearly didn't happen at all. Here's what you need to know about this summer's tournament…
Why is the 2024 WAFCON happening in 2025?
A month after the last edition of WAFCON, Morocco was announced as hosts for the 2024 edition. It was a win-win situation.
Morocco, in their bid to become the home of football in Africa, would have the world's eyes on it as well as giving its women's national team, the Atlas Lionesses, another shot at winning the tournament on home soil. For the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Africa's governing body, it was a no-brainer as Morocco was also willing to take on the financial burden of a tournament that has traditionally struggled to find a home.
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After cancelling the 2020 edition due to Covid-19, CAF had awarded the 2022 competition to Morocco and decided to move the tournament from its traditional slot in November-December to June-July to try to align with the European summer, as it had with the men's AFCON.
Changing the tournament to the summer has caused a raft of scheduling issues. With both Zambia and Nigeria qualifying for the Paris Olympics, CAF decided that it couldn't host the WAFCON in the same summer.
As 2024 rolled on without any news from CAF, fears that the tournament would be cancelled entirely began to emerge.
Finally, on June 21, 2024, just a couple of weeks before the tournament was initially meant to start, CAF announced that it would happen this July.
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It has been disruptive to preparations. Nora Hauptle, the Swiss coach who masterminded Ghana's return to the continental stage for the first time in six years, was meant to take charge of the Black Queens at the WAFCON. But with her contract expiring at the end of 2024, she left Ghana before taking over the Copper Queens of Zambia before the tournament.
The contract of defending champions Banyana Banyana's head coach, Desiree Ellis, similarly ran out last year and has not yet been renewed. She begins the defence of the title against Ghana without a contract with the South African Football Association.
The insecurity hasn't been easy on players either.
'I actually didn't know they would do it this summer,' Super Falcons defender Ashleigh Plumptre, a former England youth international, told before the tournament.
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'I was just a bit more curious, 'When are they going to fit in?'. Because obviously there is going to be another WAFCON next year.'
While the men's edition of the tournament, which starts in December in the same country, had its full schedule and stadiums published in January, fans of the women's game had to wait until May 29 to find out where and when their teams would play, just five weeks before the opening match.
'It's a shame that the promotion around the Euros is huge (compared to WAFCON),' says Plumptre.
'It's been months and months in advance, and for us, build-up is now pretty much just around the corner from WAFCON.'
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Additionally, with all three of the stadiums used in the 2022 WAFCON being renovated for the men's tournament, instead of playing in Morocco's biggest stadiums in Casablanca and Rabat, WAFCON is being hosted in three smaller grounds in the two cities as well as in Mohammedia, Berkane and Oujda, the latter two cities are just a few kilometres away from the Algerian border on the east of the country.
When Morocco kick off the tournament this weekend, instead of recreating the raucous atmosphere they saw in the final that was attended by nearly 60,000 fans, spectators will have to fit into the newly built 21,000-capacity Olympic Stadium just 100 metres down the road in the same complex.
But if the organisation and promotion in the build-up to the tournament from CAF have been scattered, the tournament itself still promises to be just as thrilling on the pitch.
What's changed for hosts Morocco since the last tournament?
Morocco find themselves among the favourites for the competition for the first time in their history — and for good reason.
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Thanks to record investment in the women's game, in the space of five years, Morocco has gone from a women's footballing backwater to the World Cup knockouts and is one of only a handful of countries to have two tiers of professional leagues.
Part of the nation's drive to improve gender equality while improving its global image, in 2020, the Moroccan Federation initiated the 'Marshall Plan' to develop women's football, funded by the state.
'Morocco has always had a balance between conservatism and secularism,' Moroccan football journalist Amine El Amri explains to 'Lately, there was a huge step in women's rights.
'It's a broad direction that Morocco has been stepping towards in the last decade. There are still a lot of issues and obstacles, but if you claim that you are a country developing women's football, you have to show that you are tackling those issues.
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'By hosting the WAFCON, it is a huge step in showing all the people of Morocco and more broadly in North African society that it is possible to develop women's football in our context.'
In a footballing context, Morocco certainly has put its money where its mouth is.
Forty-two clubs (14 in the first division and 28 in the second division) are now subsidised to the tune of up to $120,000 a year as well as being provided with training facilities, team buses, equipment, clothes and staff for every single team.
Over the next month, the national team will be based at the Mohamed VI Football Complex, once described by former England youth international and full Moroccan international Rosella Ayane as 'St George's Park, but with palm trees'.
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The complex has four five-star hotels, eight pristine pitches, one of them indoor and climate-controlled, futsal and beach soccer pitches, an Olympic-size swimming pool and a sports hospital on site.
The money and infrastructure have also allowed the kingdom to bring in top coaching talent. At the last WAFCON, Morocco were coached by Reynald Pedros, who managed Lyon to Champions League titles in 2019 and 2020. Their new coach, Jorge Vilda, led Spain to a 2023 World Cup win before being sacked amid the scandal of Spanish federation president Luis Rubiales nonconsensually kissing Jenni Hermoso.
The core of the team plays their football locally and is led by captain Ghizlane Chebbak, the daughter of former men's international Larbi Chebbak. She is the face of women's football in Morocco and is already considered a legend of the game. Chebbak is backed up by talented wingers Fatima Tagnaout and Sakina Ouzraoui Diki as well as the Saudi Women's Premier League's top-scorer, Ibtissam Jraidi.
Who are the top contenders?
The standard has never been higher in Africa, and with the continent's new 'big four' all hitting new heights the tournament is set to be peak competition.
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South Africa begin their defence against Ghana's Black Queens and retain the core of players who lifted the trophy in Rabat three years ago. But the team does not come into the tournament in the best shape.
The African champions are missing their star, Thembi Kgatlana, who pulled out of the tournament due to personal reasons, and the players boycotted training last weekend over unpaid bonuses.
But in the Mexico-based duo of Magaia and Jermaine Seoposenwe, they still have the firepower to be feared. Ellis is arguably the best African women's coach around. Since taking over from Dutch coach Vera Pauw in 2016, she has led Banyana Banyana to their first two World Cup appearances and two WAFCON finals.
Nigeria will come into the tournament hungry for revenge, having been knocked out in the semi-finals last time out by Morocco, the first time they hadn't won the tournament in a decade.
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Oshoala, potentially Nigeria's greatest talent, is still the star of the show, but she is surrounded by seasoned internationals. Brighton & Hove Albion's new goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie shone in the World Cup and for Paris FC when they knocked out Arsenal in last season's UEFA Champions League. Like South Africa, the Super Falcons have had their own problems with being paid by the federation, even boycotting training themselves at the last WAFCON.
Who is the emerging team?
While Nigeria still retain the largest depth of talent, the new face of emerging African football is Zambia.
Banda scored the winner in the NWSL final last year as Orlando Pride won their first title and was named in the team of the season. Oshoala's Bay City team-mate Kundananji lines up along Banda up front for Zambia, but this isn't a two-player team.
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Led by Pride forward Grace Chanda, the Copper Queens came third at the last WAFCON without Banda or Kundananji. They defeated the 11-time champions Nigeria in the third-place match, and this time they're ready for more.
Morocco and Zambia are joined in Group A by Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, making their return to the continental stage after 13 years away. Nine-time champions Nigeria lead Group B and will be joined by North African sides Tunisia and Algeria, as well as Botswana, who made the quarter-finals in their first appearance in the competition three years ago.
Meanwhile, champions South Africa are joined in Group C by Mali and Tanzania.
We've been made to wait a long time for it, but this WAFCON promises to be the most exciting one yet.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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