2016 Women's Africa Cup of Nations

2016 Women's Africa Cup of Nations
Coupe d'Afrique des nations féminine de football 2016
Tournament details
Host country	Cameroon
Dates	19 November – 3 December
Teams	8
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Nigeria (10th title)
Runners-up	Cameroon
Third place	Ghana
Fourth place	South Africa
Tournament statistics
Matches played	16
Goals scored	39 (2.44 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Asisat Oshoala (6 goals)
Best player(s)	Gabrielle Onguéné
Fair play award	Cameroon
	← 2014 2018 →

The 2016 Women's Africa Cup of Nations was the 12th edition of the biennial African women's association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football that was held in Cameroon.^[1] Originally scheduled to be held between 8 and 22 October 2016, it was delayed to between 19 November and 3 December 2016 due to weather considerations.^[2]

On 6 August 2015, the CAF Executive Committee announced a tournament name change from the African Women's Championship to the African Women Cup of Nations, similar to the male Africa Cup of Nations.^[3] However, CAF alternated this tournament's official logo between the original name and the new name, the Women/Women's Africa Cup of Nations or Women/Women's AFCON.

Qualification

Hosts Cameroon qualified automatically, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualification rounds which took place between March and April 2016.

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualified for the group stage. Mali protested to CAF about Equatorial Guinea fielding an ineligible player in their qualifier; CAF thus disqualified the latter and had the former replace them at the group stage.^[4]

Team	Appearance	Previous best appearance	FIFA ranking at the commencement of the tournament edition ^[5]
Cameroon (hosts)	11th	Runners-up (1991, 2004, 2014)	47
Egypt	2nd	Group stage (1998)	80
Ghana	11th	Runners-up (1998, 2002, 2006)	46
Kenya	1st	Debut	132
Mali	6th	Group stage (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010)	92
Nigeria	12th	Champions (1991, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014)	37
South Africa	11th	Runners-up (1995, 2000, 2008, 2012)	48
Zimbabwe	4th	Fourth place (2000)	94

Venues

This edition of the tournament took place in Yaoundé and Limbe.^[2]

Yaoundé	Yaoundé Limbe	Limbe
Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo		Limbe Omnisports Stadium
Capacity: 42,500		Capacity: 20,000

Squads

Each participating team's squad contained a maximum of 21 players.^[6]

Draw

The draw for the group stage took place at the Palais Polyvalent des Sports in Yaoundé on 18 September 2016 at 16:00 WAT (UTC+1).^[7] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four.^[8] For the draw, hosts Cameroon were seeded in position A1 and the defending champions Nigeria were seeded in position B1, with the remaining six teams seeded based on their results in the preceding three tournament editions.^[9]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Cameroon (position A1) Nigeria (position B1)	Ghana South Africa	Egypt Kenya Mali Zimbabwe

Group stage

The fixtures were released on 3 November 2015.^[10] The top two teams of each group advance to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to the three points for a win system; 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and none for a loss. If tied on points, the following tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[6]

Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 apply;
Goal difference in all games;
Goals scored in all games;
Drawing of lots.

All times are local, WAT (UTC+1).^[11]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Cameroon (H)	3	3	0	0	5	0	+5	9	Knockout stage
2	South Africa	3	1	1	1	5	1	+4	4	Knockout stage
3	Egypt	3	1	0	2	1	7	−6	3
4	Zimbabwe	3	0	1	2	0	3	−3	1

Source: CAF (archived)
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

19 November 2016