Morocco is hosting the ’15th edition’ of a delayed CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, a milestone event given the success of African teams and individual players in recent international global tournaments.
The WAFCON has come a long way since 1991; the name and format change, increase in participating teams, record attendance, and advancement in the playing venues.
In anticipation of a grandeur football spectacle, CAF President, Dr. Patrice Motsepe so boldly declared that the 2024 WAFCON would be the best in the tournament’s history.
Motsepe also announced a 45percent increase in the prize money for the competition bringing the purse to $3,475m – a $1m increase for the winner.
He caught the curiosity of many with his all too familiar rhetoric – oft exaggerated and outlandish claims.
Nonetheless, the gravitas of the WAFCON as postulated by CAF’s chief executive, in terms of what constitutes success, doesn’t seem to match the reality of this event.
This event in particular has failed the very basic litmus tests that should have served to back his avowal.
There are top teams in this tournament who are owed a backlog of allowances by MAs whose FA presidents have beseeched Morocco hoping CAF will perform a late act of delivering intervention funds to execute the tournament.
In some cases players don’t even have the official training bibs for practice sessions and have had to rely on old jerseys to get by.
That’s a far cry from the organizational shrewdness witnessed just over a year ago at the AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire.
These pictures of the @NGSuper_Falcons training in old match gear, instead of the appropriate training kit, left #Nigerians asking what happened to the #WAFCON kit that @nikefootball supplied them, for use during the tournament in #Morocco.
I put this question to… https://t.co/hIDhwGA2Tx
— Osasu Obayiuwana (@osasuo) July 11, 2025
Motsepe is particularly inclined to quote increases in prize money as a touchstone for progress in these competitions.
Indeed, the South African billionaire may have earned that latitude, but surely, there ought to be more.
Whilst CAF’s expenditure on promotion and logistics for the WAFCON isn’t public knowledge yet, it’s hard to equate Motsepe’s core argument with the empty seats across the centers of this flagship tournament.
Even the host, Morocco themselves have conspired to frustrate efforts to get journalists into the country for coverage of the tournament, and even worse still in a Continent where cross border travel is an arduous venture.
CAF has yet to crack the easy movement of fans across the continent for its major events, a clear disconnect between the Confederation and respective governments.
What is a football spectacle without fans in the stands and how does it profit the LOC if ticket sales receive low patronage or next to none?
🎥 HIGHLIGHTS: 🇹🇿 1-1 🇿🇦
Things got heated up as Tanzania and South Africa share the game’s points in Group C! 🔥 #TotalEnergiesWAFCON2024 pic.twitter.com/pQJ3I16WXK
— CAF Women’s Football (@CAFwomen) July 11, 2025
Patrice Motsepe doesn’t have a magical wand to wish away Africa’s fundamental geopolitical and economic issues with big sports showpieces like its flagship events.
Yet, the CAF leadership can do well to resist the urge of outlandish claims when even those issues within its purview are clearly neglected and contribute to the low ratings of tournaments.
The WAFCON is trailing behind – like all other tournaments organized by CAF, save the AFCON from 2023.
That’s a sign that CAF should focus more on the pressing challenges at hand rather than its desperate attempts at selling a PR effort for actual success.
Conclusively, I don’t think CAF or Motsepe should be aspiring to deliver the best ever WAFCON, and that’s because excellence should be a conscious mode of operation for the organization.
Motsepe should aspire to deliver the best tournament ever, and that must apply to every event organized by CAF regardless of cadre or gender.
