The 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) has had a hard time being the spotlight football event of the season, partly due to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and the Women’s Euro running concurrently. It also doesn’t help that the tournament hasn’t seen the best broadcast coverage, with many within and outside the continent struggling to follow the best of African women’s football. That aside, the 13th edition of the footballing event hasn’t disappointed since it kicked off on Saturday, July 9.

Happening in Morocco for the second time in a row, the 21,000-capacity Olympic Stadium in Rabat was the venue for the opening ceremony, before the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco and the Copper Queens of Zambia slugged it out in the tournament’s opener. Both sides, the second and third-placed teams in the last edition of the tournament, delivered a performance that largely embodied the tournament’s slogan: “Born Winners.”

Here are the must-knows on and off the pitch in the first week of WAFCON 2024.

WAFCON 2024: Week One On The Pitch

The WAFCON 2024 hasn’t been short of eventful matches. It rained goals across the first round of matches, as hosts Morocco established what kind of competition it was poised to be after striking late to earn themselves a 2-2 draw against a Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji-inspired Zambia. The Lionesses of Senegal ran rampant over DR Congo in a 4-0 rout. In Group B, nine-time African champions Nigeria got things underway by defeating Tunisia 3-0, while Algeria followed suit with a 1-0 win over Botswana. The Banyana Banyana of South Africa, in the absence of star woman Thembi Kgatlana, got their title defence off with a comfortable 2-0 win over Ghana in Group C, as Mali triumphed 1-0 over Tanzania.

Group B continued to be that group, as deadly duo Banda and Kundananji were once again the only goal scorers for Zambia in the Copper Queens’ thrilling 3-2 victory over Senegal, while Ghizlane Chebbak became the first player to score a hat-trick in this year’s WAFCON, doing so in the Atlas Lionesses’ 4-2 win over the Teranga Lionesses.

Despite putting on an uninspired display against Botswana, Nigeria became the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals courtesy of Chinwendu Ihezuo’s late strike. Zambia and Morocco joined the record African champions in the last eight after their victories on Saturday.

WAFCON 2024: Week One Off The Pitch

The WAFCON 2024 hasn’t had the most engaging off-field discussions or drama since it began. Still, there have been a number of subplots, most of which revolve around Nigeria’s Super Falcons. Among the early highlights was the Super Falcons using former national team jerseys as training kit instead of standard training wear. As it is the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) job to proactively aid the ladies’ campaign by preventing issues like this, it’s hardly a surprise they’ve fallen short yet again.

The federation’s propensity for administrative blunders, no doubt, was also the reason they found themselves in the crossfire for what should have been a dressing room joke from Esther Okoronkwo. A video of the AFC Toronto forward using cut-out plastic water bottles as shin guards went viral on social media, but instead of the video being laughed over (as it would have been in her club colours), it turned into another episode of outrage against the NFF. The 28-year-old, who has contributed two assists to Nigeria’s campaign so far, carried on with the dressing room jokes, swapping out cut-out bottles for remote controls in her latest antics.

Elsewhere, the sensitive political friction between Algeria and Morocco appears to have spilt into the tournament, with the Algerian national team reportedly sidestepping official engagement with the hosts. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced an investigation into Algeria over alleged breaches of the tournament’s regulations, but while details of the violations weren’t mentioned, Algeria’s apparent disregard for Morocco already tells the full story.

Algeria reportedly obscured every visible element of Morocco, from covering the country’s name during official tournament insignia at media appearances, to placing black tape over the Royal Moroccan Football Federation logo on designated seating areas, and more. It remains to be seen where all of this will rest.

WAFCON 2024 enters its second week on Sunday with some of the final group stage fixtures, as teams jostle for a spot in the quarterfinals set to unfold for the remainder of the week.