2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations

2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations
Tournament details
Host country Ghana
Dates 17 November – 1 December 2018
Teams 8 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s) 2 (in 2 host cities)

The 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations, officially known as the Total Women's Africa Cup Of Nations, Ghana 2018,[1] will be the 11th edition of the Africa Women Cup of Nations (13th edition if tournaments without hosts are included), the biennial international football championship organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the women's national teams of Africa. The tournament will be held in Ghana,[2] from 17 November to 1 December 2018.[3]

The tournament also doubles as the African qualifiers to the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. The top three teams will qualify for the World Cup in France. However, if Equatorial Guinea finish in the top three, the fourth placed team will qualify.[4]

Nigeria are the defending champions.

Sponsorship

In July 2016, Total has secured an eight-year sponsorship package from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to support 10 of its principal competitions.[5] Due to this sponsorship, the 2018 Women's Africa Cup of Nations is named "2018 Total Women's Africa Cup of Nations".

Host selection

There were no other associations bidding to host the event other than Ghana.[6] Ghana was de facto awarded the hosting rights on 27 September 2016 and officially in mid December.[7] It is the first time they will host the women's event.

Following media reports in mid-2018 that Ghana may be stripped of the hosting rights, this topic was discussed at the meeting of the Organising Committee for Women's Football on 12 September, and a final decision not to replace Ghana as host was taken by the CAF Executive Committee at its meeting on 27–28 September, though the Secretariat would continue to closely monitor preparations.[8][9]

Qualification

Ghana qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualifying rounds played in April and June 2018.[10]

Equatorial Guinea were initially banned from the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations,[11] but were reinstated after the ban was lifted in July 2017 at an emergency CAF committee meeting, and were included in the qualifying draw. However, FIFA have banned them from qualifying for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, meaning they could not qualify for the World Cup regardless of their performance in the Africa Women Cup of Nations.[12][13]

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualify for the final tournament.

Team Appearance Previous best performance FIFA ranking
at start of event
 Ghana (hosts)12thRunners-up (1998, 2002, 2006)47
 Algeria5thSixth place (2004)80
 Cameroon13thRunners-up (1991, 2004, 2014, 2016)49
 Equatorial Guinea5thChampions (2008, 2012)54
 Mali7thFifth place (2006, 2016)89
 Nigeria13thChampions (1991, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2016)38
 South Africa12thRunners-up (1995, 2000, 2008, 2012)50
 Zambia3rdQuarterfinals (1995)116

Venues

The tournament will be held in Accra and Cape Coast.[14]

Accra Cape Coast
Accra Sports Stadium Cape Coast Sports Stadium
Capacity: 40,000 Capacity: 15,000

Squads

Each squad can contain a maximum of 21 players (Regulations Article 69).[15]

Draw

The draw for the final tournament will be held on 21 October 2018 in Accra.[16] The eight teams will be drawn into two groups of four teams. The hosts Ghana will be seeded in Group A.[15]

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 71):[15]

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, GMT (UTC±0).

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Ghana (H) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage
2 A2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 A3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 A4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on 17/18 November 2018. Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Host.
v
v
v
v
v
v

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 B1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage
2 B2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 B3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 B4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on 17/18 November 2018. Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
v
v
v
v
v
v

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where penalty shoot-out (no extra time) is used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 72).[15]

Bracket

 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
November –
 
 
Winner Group A
 
December –
 
Runner-up Group B
 
Winner SF1
 
November –
 
Winner SF2
 
Winner Group B
 
 
Runner-up Group A
 
Third place
 
 
December –
 
 
Loser SF1
 
 
Loser SF2

Semi-finals

Winners qualify for 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Winner Group A SF1 Runner-up Group B
Winner Group B SF2 Runner-up Group A

Third place match

Winner qualifies for 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. Loser also qualifies if Equatorial Guinea are among top three.

Loser SF1 v Loser SF2

Final

Winner SF1 v Winner SF2

Qualified teams for FIFA Women's World Cup

The following three teams from CAF qualify for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Team Qualified on Previous appearances in FIFA Women's World Cup1
TBD
TBD
TBD
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

References

  1. ↑ "Total, Title Sponsor of the Africa Cup of Nations and Partner of African Football". CAF. 21 July 2016. Archived from the original on 29 December 2016.
  2. ↑ "GHANA TO HOST 2018 AFRICA WOMEN CUP OF NATIONS". dhakaba.com. 28 September 2016.
  3. ↑ "Decisions of the CAF Executive Committee of 14 March 2017". CAFonline.com. 14 March 2017.
  4. ↑ "Circular #1565 - FIFA women's tournaments 2018-2019" (PDF). FIFA.com. 11 November 2016.
  5. ↑ AfricaNews (2017-04-18). "Total to sponsor CAF competitions for the next eight years". Africanews. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  6. ↑ "Ghana to host 2018 Africa Women's Cup of Nations". modernghana.com. 28 September 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  7. ↑ "GFA receives official mandate to host 2018 Women AFCON". ghanafa.org. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "Statement on Total Women's Africa Cup of Nations Ghana 2018". CAF. 27 August 2018.
  9. ↑ "Decisions of CAF Executive Commitee [sic] - 27 & 28 September 2018". CAF. 29 September 2018.
  10. ↑ "2018 African Women's Cup of Nations qualifiers moved". Goal.com. 16 December 2017.
  11. ↑ "Equatorial Guinea disqualified, Mali in". CAF. 4 August 2016.
  12. ↑ "Equatorial Guinea banned from 2019 Women's World Cup". BBC. 6 October 2017.
  13. ↑ "Equatorial Guinea expelled from FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019". FIFA.com. 5 October 2017.
  14. ↑ "TOTAL WOMEN'S AFCON GHANA 2018 OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED". cafonline.com. 26 March 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  15. 1 2 3 4 "Regulations of the Women Africa Cup of Nations" (PDF). CAF.
  16. ↑ "Accreditation for official draw and final tournament". CAF. 8 October 2018.
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