2020 Women's Africa Cup of Nations qualification

2020 Women's Africa Cup of Nations qualification

Tournament details
Dates	Cancelled (originally 6 April – 9 June 2020)
Teams	36
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Qualification for the 2020 Women's Africa Cup of Nations was scheduled to run from 6 April to 9 June 2020 with 12 teams, including the host nation team, participating in the group stages for the first time in the tournament. ^[1] However, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decided to cancel this edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and rather launch the CAF Women's Champions League, which began the following year, i.e. 2021. ^{[2] [3]}

Format

Qualification ties were to be played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, even to the extent of a penalty shoot-out, with extra time skipped, to determine the winner. ^[4]

Schedule

The first round of matches was originally scheduled for 8 – 14 April 2020, but CAF announced its postponement until further notice on 13 March 2020 at the onset of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. ^[5]

The second round of matches were originally scheduled for 1 – 9 June 2020, but on 3 April 2020, FIFA had recommended that all international matches scheduled for June that year be postponed. ^[6] With qualification not held, CAF announced the cancellation of this edition of the tournament on 30 June 2020, making history in the process as the first African continent-centric football event or competition that was cancelled or not held for global health reasons. ^[2]

Draw

A then-record of 36 (out of 54) CAF member national teams entered qualification, whose draw was held on 4 December 2019 at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. ^{[7] [8] [9] [1]} The draw procedures were as follows: ^[10]

• In the first round, the 28 teams were drawn into 14 ties, with teams divided into four pots based on their geographical zones and those in the same pot drawn to play against each other.
• In the second round, the 14 preliminary round winners and the eight teams receiving byes to the second round were allocated into 11 ties based on the first round tie numbers, with eight first round winners playing against the eight teams receiving byes, and the other six first round winners playing against each other.

Bye to second round (8 teams)	First round entrants (28 teams)
	Pot A (8 from COSAFA)	Pot B (1 from COSAFA + 5 from UNIFFAC)	Pot C (6 from CECAFA)	Pot D (4 from WAFU A)	Pot E (3 from WAFU B + 1 from UNAF)
Cameroon   Equatorial Guinea   Ghana   Ivory Coast   Mali   Morocco   Nigeria   South Africa	Botswana   Eswatini   Malawi   Mauritius   Mozambique   Namibia   Zambia   Zimbabwe	Angola   Central African Republic   Congo   DR Congo   Gabon   São Tomé and Príncipe	Burundi   Djibouti   Ethiopia   Kenya   Tanzania   Uganda	Gambia   Guinea-Bissau   Liberia   Senegal	Burkina Faso   Niger   Togo   Algeria

Notes

• Teams in bold qualified for the group stages.
• (W): Withdrew after draw

Did not enter

•   Benin
•   Cape Verde
•   Chad
•   Comoros
•   Egypt
•   Eritrea
•   Guinea
•   Lesotho
•   Libya
•   Madagascar
•   Mauritania
•   Rwanda
•   Seychelles
•   Sierra Leone
•   Somalia
•   South Sudan
•   Sudan
•   Tunisia

Bracket

The 11 winners of the second round would have qualified for the main phase of the 2020 Women's Africa Cup of Nations. ^{[7] [9]}

First round

Second round

1

Zambia

4

Mozambique

Winner 1

Winner 2

3

Zimbabwe

2

Mauritius

First round

Second round

1

Malawi

4

Eswatini

Winner 3

South Africa

First round

Second round

1

Namibia

4

Botswana

Winner 4

Winner 5

3

Gabon

2

Central African Republic

First round

Second round

1

Angola

4

Congo

Winner 6

Equatorial Guinea

First round

Second round

1

DR Congo

4

São Tomé and Príncipe

Winner 7

Winner 8

3

Tanzania

2

Kenya

First round

Second round

1

Burundi

4

Uganda

Winner 9

Cameroon

First round

Second round

1

Ethiopia

4

Djibouti

Winner 10

Morocco

First round

Second round

1

Liberia

4

Senegal

Winner 11

Mali

First round

Second round

1

Guinea-Bissau

4

Gambia

Winner 12

Ghana

First round

Second round

1

Togo

4

Niger

Winner 13

Nigeria

First round

Second round

1

Algeria

4

Burkina Faso

Winner 14

Ivory Coast

First round

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Zambia	Match 1	Mozambique	—	—
Zimbabwe	Match 2	Mauritius	—	—
Malawi	Match 3	Eswatini	—	—
Namibia	Match 4	Botswana	—	—
Gabon	Match 5	Central African Republic	—	—
Angola	Match 6	Congo	—	—
DR Congo	Match 7	São Tomé and Príncipe	—	—
Tanzania	Match 8	Kenya	—	—
Burundi	Match 9	Uganda	—	—
Ethiopia	Match 10	Djibouti	—	—
Liberia	Match 11	Senegal	—	—
Guinea-Bissau	Match 12	Gambia	—	—
Togo	Match 13	Niger	—	—
Algeria	Match 14	Burkina Faso	—	—

Second round

Winners would have qualified for the main phase of the 2020 Women's Africa Cup of Nations.

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Winner 1	Match 15	Winner 2	—	—
Winner 3	Match 16	South Africa	—	—
Winner 4	Match 17	Winner 5	—	—
Winner 6	Match 18	Equatorial Guinea	—	—
Winner 7	Match 19	Winner 8	—	—
Winner 9	Match 20	Cameroon	—	—
Winner 10	Match 21	Morocco	—	—
Winner 11	Match 22	Mali	—	—
Winner 12	Match 23	Ghana	—	—
Winner 13	Match 24	Nigeria	—	—
Winner 14	Match 25	Ivory Coast	—	—

References

1. Ahmadu, Samuel (4 December 2019). "Record entry as Caf releases African Women's Cup of Nations qualifying fixtures and dates". Goal.com . Retrieved 1 February 2020.
2. "Decisions of CAF Executive Meeting – 30 June 2020". CAFOnline.com . 30 June 2020. Archived from the original on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
3. Ahmadu, Samuel (30 June 2020). "Caf cancels 2020 Africa Women's Cup of Nations, launches Women's Champions League". Goal.com . Retrieved 30 June 2020.
4. "Regulations of the Women's Africa Cup of Nations" (PDF). CAFOnline.com . 20 October 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
5. "Total AFCON 2021 qualifiers postponed". CAFOnline.com . 13 March 2020. Archived from the original on 16 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
6. "Dedicated COVID-19 working group proposes recommendations after first meeting". FIFA . 3 April 2020. Retrieved 3 April 2020.
7. "CAF draws lots for the Total Women AFCON 2020 and preliminaries for FIFA U-17 & U-20 Women's World Cup 2020". CAFOnline.com . 4 December 2019. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
8. "Draw 2020 U-17 FIFA Women's World Cup Qualifiers". Confederation of African Football. 6 December 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2020– via Facebook.
9. "Fixtures for 2020 Women's AFCON Qualification" (PDF). CAFOnline.com . 5 December 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
10. "Draw Procedures for the 2020 Women's AFCON Qualifiers" (PDF). CAFOnline.com . 28 November 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.