Africa deserves more slots at Fifa Women’s World Cup

And so it is third time lucky for England’s Lionesses, who have advanced to the final of the Fifa Women’s  World Cup despite going into the tournament with just a 16 per cent chance (according to sporting data analysts Gracenote).

England boasts big experience at this stage as the reigning European champions, and they fancy their chances against Spain in Sunday’s final.

Based on this, we can expect the fixture to be nothing short of thrilling, which is good, but football is only a small part of any major competition.

Even for such a tournament that has grown beyond recognition, sticky talking points are inevitable. In this World Cup, for me, the problematic issue is the number of slots our continent was given.

Africa was represented by four countries – Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Morocco, and our run at this tournament has been nothing short of extraordinary. At the end of the group phase last week, debutants Morocco joined Nigeria and South Africa in the last 16.

Even Zambia, who had been eliminated after two successive five-goal thrashings, were able to depart with a win, overcoming Costa Rica in their last group game.

But notice that three of the last four women standing after the round of 16 (Spain, Sweden, England and Australia) are European teams. This Europe that got the highest number of slots (13) despite being geographically smaller than Asia, Africa, North America and South America.

And their success is not limited to this particular tournament. In the history of the women’s World Cup, Europe boasts two titles, both delivered by Germany. The only other region that has won more titles is North America (US).

To put matters to context, Europe has 55 Fifa-affiliated members, and gets 13 slots. Africa, on the other hand, is a continent of 54 countries, but it gets just four slots.

In the grand scheme of things, these regional variations are disadvantageous for Africa, and worse, they hand unfair advantage to certain countries on the continent.
Nigeria has been to every single women’s world cup tournament since its inception in 1991 (nine appearances in total). The reason behind this is explainable.

They are the country with the most experience at this stage. And if things remain the same, it is likely that the same teams from Africa will keep qualifying for the tournament due to differences in experience and exposure, which in the end is disadvantageous for the growth of the women’s game in the continent.

Had the slots not have been increased to four from the three slots we got in 2019, it is likely that Banyana Banyana and Super Falcons of Nigeria would have made yet another appearance at that stage, meaning that Morocco and Zambia would not have managed to make their debut. And look at the beautiful story the two countries have written on their debuts.

Morocco’s Atlas Lionesses made history by becoming the first women’s team from the Arab world to play on the World Cup stage, and Zambia’s Copper Queens came out with at a victory.

Whichever way you look at it, Africa’s chances of getting a team through to the knock-out phase will be better with increased representation.

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