CAF Under Fire: Is African Women’s Football Being Sabotaged?

CAF Under Fire as controversy brews in African football, with growing questions over whether the Confederation of African Football is undermining the growth of women’s football on the continent.
The Confederation of African Football is facing heavy criticism following the controversy surrounding the Women's Africa Cup of Nations, with many fans and analysts saying CAF Under Fire After Women’s AFCON Chaos and asking whether African women’s football is being sabotaged.
With CAF Under Fire, criticism continues to grow over how the organization is handling women’s football in Africa. Fans, players, and analysts have raised serious concerns about planning, support, and the future of the women’s game across the continent.
On this episode, we break down why CAF Under Fire is trending, what led to the controversy, and what it could mean for the future of women’s football in Africa.

Transcript

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Happy International Women's Day to all the beautiful, strong women out there in Ghana and the rest of the world. As the world marked International Women's Day on the 8th of March, we also reflected on equity within the game of football and sports, generally speaking. On the 5th of March, just 12 days before the intended kickoff of the 2026 edition of the Women's African Cup of Nations, the edition that will determine Africa's representative at the next Women's World Cup in 2027, the Confederation of African Football CAF pulled the plaques on the tournament with 12 days to go. According to them, this was because of unforeseen circumstances. But imagine for a second that the Afghan, the African Cup of Nations, the celebrated men's tournament, gets postponed 12 days before the tournament. Whilst teams were camping or playing in the international tournament, in this case, Ghana's women's team were in Dubai preparing. Imagine what the reaction will be across the manosphere and indeed the football world about CAF if they had done this to the men's game. But then of course it's unthinkable. CAF will never do the same thing. They would not cancel the men's AFCON two weeks before time. But that's what they did to the women three days before International Women's Day. In essence, CAF is saying, actually, you guys, disburs, well, disband your camps and come back in four months' time. That's when we'll be prepared for the tournament. We could forgive CAF because we don't actually know what the full details are. Whether this was because Morocco pulled the plugs on CAF, whether it's because Morocco were unprepared, or there's some other reason that has not been communicated to us. The only challenge is that this is not an isolated incident as far as the women's game is concerned. For me, the step taken by CAF and its collaborators in organizing this tournament by canceling this tournament, by postponing this tournament is a policy of convenience. 2022, the Women's African Cup of Nations was delayed. 2024, Women's African Cup of Nations was pushed to 2025 to avoid the Olympics because of congested calendar. Now come to think of it, the men have congested calendars and a very congested calendar in a typical World Cup year. But even that did not prevent CAF from playing the African Cup of Nations and Christmas period for all for crying out loud. Christmas period. That's when we played, just so that at the end of the day, the tournaments could take place. But they couldn't bend themselves backwards for the women. It's a landscape that is very familiar. CAF is not just moving the tournament to a different date, they are moving the goalposts as far as the dreams of thousands of players and the aspirations of many women's footballers are concerned. What would the girls say about equity as far as the game is concerned? On International Women's Day, CAF put up a beautiful statement on their Twitter page talking about the energies of the women who play African football. But it's not so much what you say as what you do. And the impact of postponing this tournament is devastating. Teams were in camps, teams who are being assembled. There are players whose whole health regime has been curated this year to ensure that in March they'll be ready to play the AFCO. So it isn't just missing games in a particular time of the year. This was a tournament that carried the aspiration of a lot of women as a main qualifier for the 2027 FIFA World Cup. So, what does this cancellation tell promoters and potential sponsors of the women's game across Africa? What does it say to the sponsors? Well, it essentially says that you could treat a Premier Continental competition like a secondary school tournament, which can be cancelled at any time with very short notice to its participants. And this flies in the face of sustainability. Here in Africa, we've spoken about why we need consistency in our game. The women's game has struggled to attract money. CAF in itself, on occasions in the past, have said that the women benefit from the profits that are made from the women's game. So then what did CAF just do? Contradicts itself. The paradox is that to get more people invested in the women's game, you need to demonstrate sustainability. You cannot build a commercial product when the products that you are trying to build, in this case, the women's game, can change its deliveries date at a moment's notice. It becomes almost tokenism. So what is the next step? It's quite unfortunate that CAF has cancelled the competition. When women on International Women's Day say give to gain, you're not just talking about prize money and equal prize money for men and women. That is a battle that has been fought and will continue to be fought. It's about equal respect for the men's and women's game. It's equal respect for the scheduling of tournaments. And as we look towards the 2027 World Cup, being even uncertain whether the new dates that CAF is speculating for this tournament is the date on which this tournament is going to take place. We ask ourselves: is Africans' women's football growing because of the administration by CAF or in spite of prudent administration by CAF and many national federations? The tournament was expanded to 16 teams. Now that meant that for the first time, many countries will be taking their bow and making their debuts at the tournament. For now, they have to wait. It's quite obvious with the effervescence and a lot of the interest and passion that has been shown, that the hunger is there for women to participate in the biggest tournament. But it's very clear to us at this stage that the governance is lagging behind the hunger and the passion of the women. And so again, I'll reflect on the International Women's Day theme for 2026: gift to gain. If CAF wants the game to grow in Africa among women and girls, and he wants the women's tournament to become a world-class tournament, if we want to gain a certain level of following and impact with the women's game, then we have to give the women what they are due. It's time to stop the postponement. It's time to stop the tokenism. It's time to respect the women and respect their calendar to give them the stage that they have earned and deserve. And I will end by quoting Ashley Plantha, the Nigerian Super Falcon's defender who said action speaks louder than words. It's not what you say, it's not how you explain it. It is your actions that demonstrate your seriousness about the women's game. Other than that, you go explain tire. So over to you, Kalf. Some of the tells, and this is V A R.