Who Is the Fairest of All?

MOROCCO: Queens of Africa kick-start title defence against Black Queens in Wafcon opener

By  Sports Reporter

Three years after winning the CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) trophy, South Africa is just three days away from starting the defence of their title.

The tournament, which will be held in Morocco, is scheduled to kick off on Saturday, 5 July with the final penciled in for Saturday, 26 July 2025. After being a given a day off on Thursday (3 July) the Sasol-sponsored Banyana Banyana were back on the field for the final training session in Casablanca before moving to their base camp in Oujda in the afternoon.

The African Champions join the host country and 10 other nations in attempting to win the new trophy which was unveiled on Wednesday (2 July) in Rabat. South Africa takes on Ghana, Tanzania and Mali in Group C.

“We are more focused on what we need to be doing on the day when the Ghana game comes, and we are really working on that. We are focused on ourselves and not stressed about other teams, and we just need to make sure that we do (on the field) what we train,” said Banyana Banyana’s Noxolo Cesane.

She adds that they have to work harder and not rely on the performance of the previous tournament. The forward is the first to admit that since winning their maiden continental title in 2022, a lot has happened, and many teams have changed their personnel – and South Africa is no different.

“Every day, every month and every season teams change, and it is going to be hard, but we have to fix ourselves instead of looking at other teams, and we have to work hard to achieve what we want. So far, we are doing well, we have frustrations here and there, like mistakes on the field and we have to fix those – it’s difficult but we are working hard,” added Cesane. Meanwhile, this year’s WAFCON winner will walk away with a whopping R17m – this after CAF increased the winners’ prizemoney by 100 percent, a total overall increase of 45 percent on the winnings.

Banyana Banyana received USD 500 thousand (R8,8m) for claiming the 2022 title. The runners up will bank the same amount as what second place received three years ago while third place will pocket R6,1m.

Teams ending up in fourth get to keep R5,2M with the quarterfinalists each receiving USD 200 thousand (R3,5M).