WAFCON 2026: a new world order

The most impactful round of the Women's Africa Cup of Nations ever

We’re just one matchday into the Women’s AFCON and it has already delivered two of the most remarkable results in the competition’s history.

On Monday evening Tanzania got the ball rolling by beating 2022 WAFCON champions South Africa in what was the biggest upset in the tournament’s 28 year history. Tanzania had never won a match before at the tournament and twice blitzed Banyana Banyana to rock the very foundation of African football.

But if that was a rocking, what happened the next day was an earthquake of a magnitude this planet has never seen.

Malawi, a country taking its first steps at the WAFCON, on their debut beat Nigeria, the most successful national team in the history of football.

This was not just some upset where the holders of a competition lost to debutants, this was a win that was on a scale never seen before in Africa or perhaps anywhere around the world.

Let me try put the victory, led by the iconic Chawinga sisters into some perspective.

Nigeria prior to this tournament had won ten of the thirteen WAFCONs ever to have taken place. The Super Falcons had previously played 67 games in this competition. They had never once in all of those games conceded more than two goals. Against the Scorchers they let in three and could’ve seen another couple go in if not for the offside flag and Temwa Chawinga’s rare profligacy.

Across those thirteen tournaments Nigeria had played a debutant side 18 times, drawing once, and winning the rest with a goal difference of +68.

Nigeria simply do not lose these games at the WAFCON, they hardly lose any games at this tournament. It had only happened seven times previously in 28 years.

Such is Nigeria’s dominance that Perpetua Nkwocha’s individual tally of 34 goals in the competition is only bettered by four other nations on the continent.

Malawi looked at those stats and the goliath that stood in front of them and said, “we’ll take those odds.”

Prior to the game both Tabitha Chawinga and Lovemore Fazili were bullish, the latter saying, “It is going to be a tough game. Nigeria are the champion, right? But sometimes history in football can change. There will be something positive after 90 minutes.”

Football history certainly has changed.

And the crazy thing is that Malawi were deserved winners. They carried a threat and as early as the fourth minute were showing their game plan of playing direct football into Temwa Chawinga who made Oluwatosin Demehin and Osinache Ohale look like village defenders, not the WAFCON championship defensive duo that they are.

But Malawi were happy to mix it up. They weren’t playing in a miserable low block and just clearing the ball to the Chawinga sisters in prayer. Faith Chinzimu, Madyina Nguluwe and Leticia Chinyamula were an effective screen in front of the defense, and were allowing Benadetta Mkandawire and Rose Kadzere to attack the right flank while leaving the entire left side to the brilliant Tabitha Chawinga.

While the result was a shock, the performance shouldn’t have been. More importantly, that, alongside Tanzania’s win against South Africa signals a new era in women’s football on the continent.

For much of the 21^st century, this continent has been the play thing of Nigeria. Occasionally South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana or Cameroon would have the audacity to challenge the Super Falcons but there was hardly anything more than a nominal challenge.

The early 2020s ushered in a half decade of the “big four”. Zambia and Morocco joined South Africa and Nigeria among the elite of African football both on the continent as well as at the World Cup and the Olympics.

Heading into this tournament the consensus was that Nigeria would dominate again and that there was space for some upstarts -Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Algeria specifically- to gate crash the top four and those precious World Cup qualification spots.

But in two nights, two nations from rural East Africa have shattered that paradigm, potentially permanently.

And for the first time, thanks to the change of format, both Nigeria and South Africa are one loss away from being knocked out of the WAFCON in the group stage, something that is genuinely unthinkable.

But if Nigeria lose to the power hungry Zambia, fresh off the back of a 6-0 hammering of Egypt, or if South Africa fall to the impressive Ivorians who beat their Burkinabe neighbours 4-1, the two biggest powerhouses of African football will be packing their bags.

And as far as I’m concerned, good riddance.

Not because the players don’t deserve to go home, not because the coaches haven’t done their job, but because these are the two federations of footballing institutions that have treated their women worse than any other on the continent. For the first time Nigeria and South Africa potentially won’t be bailed out of bad governance by individual brilliance on the pitch.

Maybe, just maybe, getting knocked out in the group stage of the WAFCON, would be the best thing to happen to both these teams.

Either way, the next round of the WAFCON is already set up to be box office.