The 2002 African Women's Championship was the fifth edition of the

African Women's Championship The Women's Africa Cup of Nations, also called the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons and abbreviated to WAFCON, is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Confe ...

(now known as the ''Africa Women Cup of Nations''), the biennial international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

championship organised by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football, or CAF for short (french: link=yes, Confédération Africaine de Football, ar, link=yes, الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam), is the administ ...

(CAF) for the women's national teams of Africa. It was held in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

between 7 December and 20 December 2002. The tournament determined the CAF's two qualifiers for the

2003 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial championship of women's national soccer teams organized by FIFA. It was held in the United States from September 20 to October 12, 2003, at s ...

— the winner

and the runner-up

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. Nigeria won its fifth title, beating Ghana 2–0 in the final.

Host selection

In January 2001, the

Botswana Football Association The Botswana Football Association (BFA) is the governing body of association football in Botswana, and controls the national football team. It is an affiliate of FIFA, CAF and the COSAFA. National football leagues include the beMOBILE Premier ...

had confirmed that the country has submitted a bid to host the tournament. It is unknown if they withdrew from bidding later.

were elected as hosts in March 2002 after there were no serious takers for the tournament. Nigerian officials were approached by the CAF at the

2002 African Cup of Nations The 2002 African Cup of Nations was the 23rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa (Confederation of African Football, CAF). It was hosted by Mali. Just like in 2000 African Cup of Nations, 2000, th ...

finals in

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

and were keen to host the tournament. Nigeria had hosted the tournament previously, in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

Qualification

qualified automatically as both hosts and defending champions, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualifying rounds, which took place from August to October 2002.

Format

Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away

two-legged In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...

basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

would be applied, and if still level, the

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

would be used to determine the winner (no

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

would be played). The seven winners of the final round qualified for the final tournament.

Qualified teams

2002 African Womens Football Championship qualification

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and

made their first appearances in the tournament. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

Officials

The following referees were named for the tournament: * Ondo Akono * Chimane Nombauli * Mukulu Mbula * Scholastica Tetteh * Bola Abidoye * Bolanle Sekiteri * Xonam Agboyi *

Constance Adipo Constance may refer to: Places *Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English * Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada *Constance, Kentucky * Constance, Minnesota *Constance (Portugal) * Mount Constance, Washington State People * Constan ...

Format

The eight teams were divided into two groups of four teams each. The top two teams in the groups advanced to the semi-finals. The finalists of the tournament qualified for the

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss).

Results

Group stage

Group A

---- ----

Group B

---- ----

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time,

is played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by

kicks from the penalty mark A penalty shoot-out (officially kicks from the penalty mark) is a tie-breaking method in association football to determine which team is awarded victory in a match that cannot end in a draw, when the score is tied after the normal time as well ...

to determine the winner, except for the third place match where no extra time is played.

Semi-finals

Winners qualified for the

. ----

Third-place playoff

Final

The match was held up for about 5 minutes after fans pelted a linesman with sachets of water after

Alberta Sackey Alberta Sackey (born November 6, 1972) is a Ghanaian former international footballer who played as a forward. She played for Ghana at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ...

had not been given offside (but missed the chance anyway).

Awards

Statistics

Team statistics

2002 African Womens Football Championship Results

Goalscorers

;4 goals *

Perpetua Nkwocha Perpetua Ijeoma Nkwocha (born 3 January 1976) is a Nigerian female professional footballer, who is the coach of Clemensnäs IF from Swedish Women's Football Division 2, she previously played for Swedish club Sunnanå SK. She was also a member ...

* Veronica Phewa ;3 goals * Mercy Akide * Stella Mbachu ;2 goals * Awasso Endegene-Leme * Mavis Dgajmah *

Nana Gyamfuah Nana Amma Gyamfuah (born 4 August 1978) is a Ghanaian footballer who played as a forward for the Ghana women's national football team. She was part of the team at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the thir ...

* Rokiatou Samake * Ifenyichukwu Chiejine * Esther Zulu Talent ;1 goal * Irene Gonçalves * Jacinta Rios * Antoinette Anounga * Rolande Belemgoto * Christelle Pokam * Madeleine Ngono Mani *

Adjoa Bayor Adjoa Bayor (born 17 May 1979) is a Ghanaian former footballer who played as a midfielder. She has captained the Ghana women's national team. International career Bayor was part of the Ghana women's national football team at the 1999 FIFA Wom ...

* Maïchata Konaté * Ekpo Effionwan * Florence Iweta * Olaitan Yusuf * Antonia Carelse * Lydia Monyepao ;Unknown goalscorers *: 3 additional goals

Qualified teams for FIFA Women's World Cup

The following two teams from CAF qualified for the

. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

References

External links

Tables & Results
at RSSSF.com {{International women's football 2002 African Women's Championship