Cameroon get World Cup lifeline as CAF organizes playoff tournament

The Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon have been given a pathway back into qualifying for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Cameroon suffered a 1-0 defeat in the quarterfinal against Nigeria but have now been given another opportunity with the CAF play-off and The inter-confederation play-off routes.

The Confederation of African Football has now organized a play-off tournament where all the quarterfinal losers will play to decide the two nations who will represent Africa at the inter-confederation play-off.

CAF Playoff Tournament Fixtures

Senegal vs Tunisia
Botswana vs Cameroon

The play-off games will be played on Sunday.

The two teams which will emerge on Sunday will enter the inter-confederation play-off where ten teams will fight for three slots.

A ten-team play-off tournament will decide the final three spots at the Women’s World Cup.

The allocation of slots for each confederation for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

AFC (Asia): 6 slots*
CAF (Africa): 4 slots
CONCACAF (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean): 4 slots
CONMEBOL (South America): 3 slots
OFC (Oceania): 1 slot*
UEFA (Europe): 11 slots
inter-confederation play-off tournament: 3 slots
(*) The slots for the two host nations, Australia and New Zealand, were taken directly from the quotas allocated to their confederations, the AFC and OFC respectively.

The inter-confederation play-off tournament slot allocation is as follows:

AFC (Asia): 2 slots
CAF (Africa): 2 slots
CONCACAF (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean): 2 slots
CONMEBOL (South America): 2 slots
OFC (Oceania): 1 slot
UEFA (Europe): 1 slot

The 2023 FIFA World Cup will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, the first time that the FIFA Women’s World Cup will have two host nations, and is scheduled to take place from 20 July to 20 August 2023.

The 2023 tournament will see the Women’s World Cup expanded from 24 to 32 teams.