CAF records historic participation for AWCON as 44 countries enter for qualifying draw

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has received a record entry for teams to participate in the preliminaries of the 2022 Africa Women's Cup of Nations (AWCON).

The 12th edition of the tournament will be held in Morocco in the summer of 2022 after the tournament was earlier canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

44 teams have entered the preliminaries to compete in the qualifiers ahead of the main competition in 2022.

This is the highest number of teams to enter into this preliminary round from the initial 20 teams that entered to play prior to the 2018 AWCON hosted by Ghana.

It also accounts for 75 percent of the national teams in Africa, which reflects the huge impact of Caf's women's football strategy and Fifa's women's football support to member associations.

Ahead of the draw which will be held on Monday, top-ranking teams such as Nigeria along with Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Mali, Ghana, South Africa, Algeria, Senegal, and Cote d'Ivoire are expected to be drawn byes.