The Confederation of African Football (CAF) released the details for its maiden Women’s Champions League which will hold in 2021.
Each of the Six CAF Zones will organize qualifiers to determine the finalists for the eight (8) team tournament. One team will emerge from each zone while the host country will be represented by one team while there will be provision for an additional team.
For the maiden edition, the zonal union of the host country will have two representatives. In future editions, the host country will have only one representative whilst the Zonal Union of the defending champion will qualify two teams.
The eight qualified teams will be drawn into two groups of four teams each in accordance with the regulations.
The competition will be held annually and during the second half of the year.
In other announcements, the confederation announced readjustments to its calendar brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. They include:
- The African Nations Championship (CHAN) will be played between 16 January-7 February 2021
- Senegal will host the 2020 Beach Soccer Nations Cup
- The 2022 CHAN will be hosted by Algeria in January 2023
- The next Women’s Africa Cup of Nations will take place in July 2022
- 2021 Nations Cup and 2022 World Cup qualifiers will stay the same and are will in November 2020 and May 2021 respectively
- The CAF Under-17 Nations Cup be hosted by Morocco between 13-31 March 2021
Also move to tackle a seemingly intractible problem of age cheating, CAF announced that any team that fields a player deemed ineligible via MRI test regulations will be disqualified.
The continental body also called for bids to host the following competitions:
- Women’s Champions League 2021 & 2022
- Total Women’s Africa Cup of Nations – 2022
- Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations 2022
- Total U-17 Africa Cup of Nations – 2023
- Total U-20 Africa Cup of Nations – 2023
- Total U-23 Africa Cup of Nations – 2023
- Total CAF Champions League Final 2021, 2022 and 2023
- Total CAF Confederation Cup Final 2021, 2022 and 2023