The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations has been postponed just 12 days before the finals were set to kick off in Morocco.
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) in a statement released on Thursday said it was rescheduling the WAFCON to July due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
The tournament, which this year doubles up as a qualifier for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil, was scheduled to be held from 17 March to 3 April.
Morocco was set to stage a third successive edition of the finals but reports of a potential hosting change had created anxiety among players and fans in recent weeks.
Speculation about the country’s willingness to host the tournament increased after the chaotic scenes that played out in the 2025 men’s Afcon final, which Morocco lost 1-0 to Senegal in a dramatic match at the Stade Moulay Abdellah stadium in Rabat.
Caf said the decision to postpone the tournament was taken to “ensure the success of this important women’s competition”.
The tournament will now be held from 25 July-16 August, it said, stating that “preparations for the tournament are underway”. It did not indicate whether the host nation would change.
The group stage draw for the expanded 16-team tournament was made on 15 January but Caf had not yet published the full match schedule.
At the start of February, South African Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie was forced to clarify remarks from his deputy that South Africa was set to take over as Wafcon 2026 hosts.
The postponement will once again lead to questions about Caf’s commitment to the women’s game, with the 2020 Wafcon cancelled entirely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations was rescheduled until early 2022.
The 2024 Wafcon, won by Nigeria, was only held in July last year because of scheduling conflicts including the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Wafcon is the second continental tournament to be moved at short notice in the past 14 months.
Caf postponed the 2024 African Nations Championship just 18 days before it was due to start in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda on 1 February 2025.
On that occasion, the continent’s governing body said its experts had advised that more time was required to ensure infrastructure and facilities were “at the levels necessary”.
