African soccer’s CAF governing body has expanded coverage of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) national teams tournament with additional international rights deals but has caused some confusion regarding the situation in the UK.
On Friday, CAF announced that the tournament will be shown live in the UK for the first time through a deal with commercial broadcaster Channel 4.
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According to the continental governing body, Channel 4 will show select games, while the rest of the competition will be available in the market on the CAF TV channel on YouTube.
However, Sportcal understands there is currently no deal in place with Channel 4 and the broadcaster’s schedule does not include WAFCON games.
The commercial network has a relationship with CAF after providing coverage of the men’s 2025 Africa Cup of Nations through an exclusive deal, the first time the entire tournament was available free-to-air (FTA) in the UK.
Channel 4 also aired this year's CAF Champions League final.
Meanwhile, the CAF TV channel will also provide WAFCON coverage in select international markets where rights deals have not been agreed.
Additional deals have been announced in Italy and the Netherlands, with the Sportitalia and Ziggo broadcasters to air the semi-finals and final, respectively.
An agreement has also been struck in Israel for Sport 5 to show select matches from across the group stages and up to the final.
In addition to the UK, the full list of international markets where WAFCON will be shown via CAF TV includes Central America, Mexico, Southern America, Caribbean, Nordics (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland), Spain, Portugal, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Turkey, Russia, Poland, the Balkans, Greece, and the Indian Subcontinent.
CAF previously announced that the tournament will be shown by international pay-TV giant BeIN Sports in the Middle East and North Africa, Canal Plus and Ziggo in French-speaking African territories, and SuperSport across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The rights portfolio also includes leading African broadcasters SNRT for host nation Morocco, SABC in South Africa, Azam Media for parts of East Africa – including Tanzania – and BBC Radio for several Sub-Saharan territories.
There are also over 18 FTA broadcasters, including KBC in Kenya, AfroSport in Nigeria, MaxTV in Ghana, RTI in Côte d’Ivoire, RTCV in Cape Verde, ZNBC in Zambia, and RTB in Burkina Faso.
CAF stated that further details on international coverage of the WAFCON “will be made available shortly.”
The expanded 16-team version of the WAFCON kicked off on Sunday.
In March, CAF postponed the 2026 WAFCON just 12 days before it had been due to start, citing “unforeseen circumstances."
The tournament was initially scheduled to run from March 17 through April 3 but was then pushed back four months. The final is now set to be held on August 16.
Morocco was awarded hosting rights back in October 2024 and also hosted the most recent men’s edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, across December 2025 and January 2026.
The 2024 edition of WAFCON, which took place in 2025, was also staged in Morocco through July, to accommodate it in the increasingly congested world soccer calendar and to avoid a clash with the Olympic Games.
In total, this is the third consecutive time that Morocco is hosting WAFCON (having also held it in 2022).
