Record 42 entries as Caf holds 2022 Africa Women's Cup of Nations qualifying draw

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A historic mark beckons as the draw of the qualifiers for the 12-nation showpiece, will be held in Cairo next week

The qualifying tournament draw for the 2022 Africa Women's Cup of Nations will be conducted on Monday, May 10, 2021, in Cairo, Goal can exclusively report.

The 12th edition of the showpiece is now billed to take place in Morocco in the summer of 2022 following the cancellation of the 2020 event due to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Goal learnt that a record total of 42 nations entered the 2022 Awcon qualifiers - six more than the teams that entered the botched 2020 tournament and also 18 more than the 2018 edition in Ghana.

It also accounts for 75 percent of the national teams in Africa, which reflects the huge impact of Caf's women's football strategy and Fifa's women's football support to member associations.

While hosts Morocco are automatically guaranteed a place in the biennial competition, the 42 teams will slug it out for the 11 places in the qualifying series for the continental showpiece.

Heading into Monday's draw, holders Nigeria along with Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Mali, Ghana, South Africa, Algeria, Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire are expected to be drawn byes.

In related news, the draw of the African qualifying race for the 2022 U20 Women's World Cup in Costa Rica will be held on the same day.

Goal also understands 40 countries will be fighting for the two slots in the U20 qualifiers, 11 more than the teams involved in the cancelled 2020 edition.

In the U17 qualifying series, 29 teams will compete for the three spots for the U17 Women's World Cup scheduled for India next year. Nine more than those involved in the scrapped 2020 event.

The draws for the 2022 Awcon, 2022 U17 WCC and U20 WWC qualifiers will be supervised by Khaled Nassar, Head of Caf Competitions at the Caf headquarters in Egypt on Monday.

2021-05-05 23:00:07

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