African Women's Championship

African Women's Championship
Founded	1991
Region	Africa (CAF)
Number of teams	8
Current champions	Equatorial Guinea
Most successful team(s)	Nigeria; (8 times)
	2012 African Women's Championship

The African Women's Championship is a biennial competition in women's football for national teams which belong to the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Nine tournaments have been held, with the current champions being Nigeria. Nigeria have won all but one of the previous tournaments.

The competition has served as a qualifying tournament for the FIFA Women's World Cup every other year since its inception in 1991. In 2006, the final round of the competition took place in Nigeria for the third time, replacing Gabon, which was initially granted the right to host but later pulled out citing financial difficulties.

History [edit]

In 2000, hosts South Africa met three-time champions Nigeria in the final game of the tournament. After Nigeria finished the first half ahead 1-0, Nigeria's Stella Mbachu scored a second goal in the 72nd minute and the home crowd realized there was no coming back. Supporters began hurling bottles and other debris at officials and Nigerian players. The match was abandoned after three attempts at restarts were all interrupted by further disturbances. Riot police began fighting battles with bottle-throwing supporters about 40 minutes after the goal had been allowed, throwing tear gas into the crowd to break up the disturbance. The game and the tournament were awarded to Nigeria.

Results [edit]

Year	Host nation	Final			Third Place
Year	Host nation	Winner	Score	Second Place	Third Place
1991 Details	home sites	Nigeria	2 – 0 4 – 0	Cameroon	Guinea	and	Zambia
1995 Details	home sites	Nigeria	4 – 1 7 – 1	South Africa	Angola	and	Ghana
Year	Host nation	Final			Third Place Match
Year	Host nation	Winner	Score	Second Place	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
1998 Details	Nigeria	Nigeria	2 – 0	Ghana	Congo DR	3 – 3 (3 – 1) penalties	Cameroon
2000 Details	South Africa	Nigeria	2 – 0 (abd 73')	South Africa	Ghana	6 – 3	Zimbabwe
2002 Details	Nigeria	Nigeria	2 – 0	Ghana	Cameroon	3 – 0	South Africa
2004 Details	South Africa	Nigeria	5 – 0	Cameroon	Ghana	0 – 0 (6 – 5) penalties	Ethiopia
2006 Details	Nigeria	Nigeria	1 – 0	Ghana	South Africa	2 – 2 (5 – 4) penalties	Cameroon
2008 Details	Equatorial Guinea	Equatorial Guinea	2 – 1	South Africa	Nigeria	1 – 1 (5 – 4) penalties	Cameroon
2010 Details	South Africa	Nigeria	4 – 2	Equatorial Guinea	South Africa	2 – 0	Cameroon
2012 Details	Equatorial Guinea	Equatorial Guinea	4 – 0	South Africa	Cameroon	1 – 0	Nigeria
2014 Details	Namibia		TBD			TBD

Note: abd - match abandoned

Statistics [edit]

Performance by nation [edit]

#	Nation	Winners	Runners-up	Third Place	Fourth Place	Total
1	Nigeria	8	0	1	1	10
2	Equatorial Guinea	2	1	0	0	3
3	South Africa	0	4	2	1	7
4	Ghana	0	3	3	0	6
5	Cameroon	0	2	2	4	8
6	Angola	0	0	1	0	1
-	Congo DR	0	0	1	0	1
-	Guinea	0	0	1	0	1
-	Zambia	0	0	1	0	1
10	Ethiopia	0	0	0	1	1
-	Zimbabwe	0	0	0	1	1
Total		10	10	12	8	40

Tournament appearances [edit]

Appearances	Nation
9	Ghana Nigeria Cameroon South Africa
5	Mali
3	Algeria Equatorial Guinea Zimbabwe
2	Angola Ethiopia Morocco Congo DR
1	Congo Egypt Guinea Uganda Réunion Sierra Leone Tanzania Tunisia Zambia

Participating nations [edit]

Team	1991	1995	1998	2000	2002	2004	2006	2008	2010	2012	Years
Algeria						GS	GS		GS		3
Angola		3rd			GS						2
Cameroon	2nd	GS	4th	GS	3rd	2nd	4th	4th	4th	3rd	10
Congo	GS							GS			2
Congo DR			3rd				GS			GS	3
Ivory Coast										GS	1
Egypt			GS								1
Equatorial Guinea							GS	1st	2nd	1st	4
Ethiopia					GS	4th				GS	3
Ghana	GS	3rd	2nd	3rd	2nd	3rd	2nd	GS	GS		9
Guinea	3rd	GS									2
Mali					GS	GS	GS	GS	GS		5
Morocco			GS	GS							2
Mozambique			GS								1
Nigeria	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	3rd	1st	4th	10
Réunion				GS							1
Senegal	GS									GS	2
Sierra Leone		GS									1
South Africa		2nd	GS	2nd	4th	GS	3rd	2nd	3rd	2nd	9
Tanzania									GS		1
Tunisia								GS			1
Uganda				GS							1
Zambia	3rd	GS									2
Zimbabwe	GS			4th	GS	GS					4
Total	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8