Wafcon expands to 16 teams for 2026 finals

Nigeria are the reigning Wafcon champions, having beaten hosts Morocco 3-2 in the final of the delayed 2024 edition in July

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.

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.

The expansion will likely require a third round of preliminaries to be played, with 11 remaining nations competing for four spots.

Caf is expected to announce further details after discussions at its executive committee meeting being held in Kinshasa.

Wafcon was an eight-team tournament from its first edition in 1998 until the 2018 finals in Ghana.

The 2020 Wafcon was scrapped because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the competition returned with 12 sides in 2022.

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 (£2.6m).

Champions Nigeria were handed $1m (£750,000) after winning a record-extending 10th Wafcon title.

"I am pleased with the progress we've made in women's African football," Caf president Patrice Motsepe said.

"Part of my starting point is making sure [men and women] are paid well and they can make a career out of football.

"I can assure you women's football will continue to improve because that is an area we are focussing on a lot."