Women's Africa Cup of Nations, Ghana

By B. Zarzur

The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations is a football tournament that was first officially held in 1998 in Nigeria. Nowadays it is held in different countries in Africa every two years. Also, the best performing team is Nigeria and this year’s (2018) Women’s Africa Cup of Nation will take place in Ghana from the 17th of November to the 1st of December 2018. There is a total of 24 teams taking part this year, some of them being Nigeria, Congo, Ghana, among others. This competition is also used to qualify teams for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) organises this championship.

The History of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations:

The first competition took place in 1991 and Nigeria was the winning team. However, the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations was only officially held by CAF in 1998 in Nigeria. This tournament has been officially held 10 times, 2018 is the 11th edition. In 2015 the name was changed from African Women’s Championship to Women’s Cup of Nations.

Performance:

​The best performing team is Nigeria, with a total of ten gold medals and one bronze medal. Equatorial Ghana is also one of the best performing teams in the tournament, with two gold medals and one silver medal. In 2016, Asisat Oshoala, from Nigeria, was nominated as the best player of the year. (Golden boot- which is an award given to the teammate/player that scored the most goals) Oshoala scored a total of six goals.

Current Competition:

​This year’s (2018) Women’s Africa Cup of Nations was held in Ghana from the 17th of November- 1st of December. The semifinals took place this Tuesday (27/11) – Cameroon against Nigeria and South Africa against Mali. The winning teams, Nigeria and South Africa will be going against each other in the finals Saturday, the 1st of December. The winning team will receive the gold medal and the runner-up, the silver medal. That means that Cameroon and Mali will be disputing the 3rd place in the competition tomorrow (1/12)