The WAFCON tournament kicked off last Saturday in Morocco and will run through July 26th, when the finals will be held. The biennial tournament, which takes place every two years and happens every even year, is not taking place in 2024, despite its year tag. However, this year’s tournament, despite maintaining its year tag, is actually taking place in 2025.
Clashes
One of the main reasons the tournament couldn’t take place last year as planned was the 2024 Summer Olympics, which conflicted with it. Although teams qualified nearly a year ago, the tournament had to be postponed to accommodate other international events. The Confederation of African Football described the scheduling process as a nightmare.
Rebranding
CAF also rebranded the tournament, moving the games from the traditional November-December schedule to June-July to align with the European summer, similar to what it did with the men’s AFCON. This change is due to most players in the WAFCON competing internationally in European leagues and the USA.
The tournament has also seen a significant shift in women’s sport, as it’s growing on the continent, and hence the need to create better fair grounds for the teams. Unlike previous years, when women competed for small awards, CAF increased the total prize money by 45%. The winners’ award was doubled from $500,000 USD to $1 million. Additionally, CAF redesigned the trophy for the tournament to represent togetherness and the growth of the sport on the continent.
Brand Consistency
Just like the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which took place a year later in 2021 following the pandemic that had halted many events in previous years, WAFCON 2024 maintained its brand consistency. This is because when sports events are bound to take place, a lot of branding of merchandise, infrastructure and other products related to the sports events carries a huge cost which cannot be regained if the brand name is abandoned. Also, the tournaments have to maintain a cycle and consistency to keep the continuity of the brand, despite the delay. It’s also a marketing strategy as efforts to promote and attract potential funders and sponsors have already been made and a change of the brand could hurt the brand and more so confuse the public.
WAFCON 2024
Twelve teams are participating in this edition’s tournament. South Africa won the previous edition and is seeking to maintain the title, while Nigeria looks to regain its glory as the continent’s giant in the sport. Zambia is also looking for its first title at the tournament with a squad led by some of the top women’s soccer players like Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji.
