Nigeria’s Super Falcons will begin the chase for their 10th title in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations as seeded team B1. The final draw of the competition will hold on Friday evening at the Technical Centre of Mohammed VI Football Complex in Salé, Rabat Morocco.

It will start at 8 pm local time, the same as in Nigeria but at 19h00 GMT.  Nigeria along with hosts, Morocco and defending champions, South Africa are the top seeds. The trio will therefore not meet at the group stage.

Morocco will go in as Team A1 while defending champions South Africa will take position C1.

The remaining nine teams are seeded based on their FIFA ranking thus creating four levels that ensure a balanced initial distribution of teams for the tournament.

The distribution runs thus:

• Level 1: Morocco (host), Nigeria, South Africa
• Level 2: Zambia, Ghana, Tunisia
• Level 3: Mali, Senegal, Algeria
• Level 4: DR Congo, Tanzania, Botswana

The draw will follow a rigorous methodology to ensure balanced and fair groupings. Three separate pots will be used to allocate teams from Levels 2, 3, and 4 into Groups A, B, and C:

1. Pot C (Level 4):
   • The first ball drawn will go to Group A, position A4.
   • The second ball will go to Group B, position B4.
   • The third ball will go to Group C, position C4.
2. Pot B (Level 3):

1. The first ball drawn will go to Group A, position A3.
2. The second ball will go to Group B, position B3.
3. The third ball will go to Group C, position C3.
4. Pot A (Level 2):

1. The first ball drawn will go to Group A, position A2.
2. The second ball will go to Group B, position B2.
3. The third ball will go to Group C, position C2.

Morocco 2024 is the 13th edition of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and will run from July 5 to July 26, 2025. 

South Africa are the defending champions and they secured their first continental title in Morocco two years ago. Nigeria won nine of the previous 12 editions.

Nine-time champions Nigeria will know their opponents for the group phase of next year’s Women Africa Cup of Nations competition when the draw is conducted at the Technic Centre of the Mohamed VI Football Complex in Sale, outside Rabat, Morocco on Friday evening.

The field of 12 finalist-teams will be framed into three groups of four teams each, with the top two teams in each group, as well as the best two third-placed teams in the three groups, advancing to the quarter-finals of the competition scheduled for Morocco.

Of the 12 previous tournaments held since Nigeria hosted the inaugural in 1998, the Super Falcons have been victorious nine times, with Equatorial Guinea winning twice and South Africa sweeping to victory in the last edition, also hosted by Morocco in July 2022.

All the four top-placed teams in that last edition are also in the field of 12 this time, viz Cup holders South Africa, hosts Morocco, Zambia and Nigeria.

Also qualified are Ghana, Algeria, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tunisia, Senegal, Tanzania and Mali.

The 13^th Women Africa Cup of Nations finals will take place 5^th – 26^th July 2025.

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Dropping a whopping 69.33 points in the current FIFA rankings, Nigeria’s Super Falcons are adjudged as the team with the biggest drop by points.

Though they remain the first in Africa, their global ranking slumped from 39 in on 17 June to 47 on 5 August.

Their slump could be linked to the performances at the last month’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations where they played six matches and won just three, a far cry from their previous outings.

They could not also make a podium appearance. Their conquerors in the bronze medal match, Zambia are adjudged to have both the biggest move by points and also by rank when they moved 23 places up the ladder to 80^th position.

Winners of WAFCON, South Africa also have impressive move from 58^th in the world to 54^th.

In Africa, the African queens moved from third position to second.

At global level, US still remain on top in a ranling that took into consideration 221 matches played since 17 June.