2006 African Women's Championship qualification

The 2006 African Women's Championship qualification process was organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2006 African Women's Championship. Gabon qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualifying rounds, which took place from February to August 2006. Later, Gabon withdrew from hosting the competition due to organisational reasons.^[1] The CAF awarded the hosting of the competition to Nigeria in May 2006.^[2]

Teams

A record 34 national teams participated in the qualifying process.

Teams who withdrew before playing a match are in italics.

Round	Teams entering round	No. of teams
Preliminary round	Benin  Botswana  Central African Republic  Djibouti  Lesotho  Libya  Malawi  Mozambique  Namibia  Togo  São Tomé and Príncipe  Senegal  Swaziland  Zambia	14
First round	Algeria  Angola  Congo  DR Congo  Egypt  Equatorial Guinea  Eritrea  Ethiopia  Guinea  Ivory Coast  Kenya  Mali  Morocco  South Africa  Tanzania  Uganda  Zimbabwe	17
Second round	Cameroon  Ghana  Nigeria	3
Qualifying rounds	Total	34
Final tournament	Gabon (original hosts)	1

Format

Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still level, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (no extra time would be played).

The seven winners of the final round qualified for the final tournament.

Schedule

The schedule of the qualifying rounds was as follows.

Round	Leg	Date
Preliminary round	First leg	19 February 2006
	Second leg	26 February 2006
First round	First leg	11–12 March 2006
	Second leg	25–26 March 2006
Second round	First leg	22–23 July 2006
	Second leg	4–6 August 2006

Preliminary round

The results of this round do not appear in the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) or the official FIFA website.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Libya	w/o1	Swaziland	—	—
Benin	1–0	Malawi	1–0	0–0
Mozambique	12–02	Namibia	9–0	3–0
Djibouti	w/o1	Lesotho	—	—
São Tomé and Príncipe	0–9	Togo	0–3	0–6
Zambia	w/o1	Botswana	—	—
Senegal	7–03	Central African Republic	4–0	3–0

• ¹ Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland withdrew.
• ² Namibia withdrew after the first leg.
• ³ Central African Republic were disqualified after the first leg.

Libya won by default and advanced to the first round.

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Benin won 1–0 on aggregate and advanced to the first round.

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Mozambique won by default and advanced to the first round.

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Djibouti won by default and advanced to the first round.

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Togo won 9–0 on aggregate and advanced to the first round.

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Zambia won by default and advanced to the first round.

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Senegal won by default and advanced to the first round.

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Algeria	w/o1	Libya	—	—
Eritrea	w/o1	Egypt	—	—
Morocco	1–6	Mali	0–2	1–4
Benin	2–2 (4–3 p)	Ivory Coast	1–1	1–1
Angola	4–5	Equatorial Guinea	3–2	1–3
South Africa	12–3	Mozambique	6–2	6–1
Uganda	w/o1	Tanzania	—	—
Congo	12–1	Togo	9–0	3–1
Kenya	7–0	Djibouti	7–0	n/p2
DR Congo	6–2	Zambia	3–0	3–2
Senegal	12–1	Guinea	7–0	5–1

• ¹ Eritrea, Libya and Uganda withdrew. Ethiopia and Zimbabwe also withdrew (they had originally received byes along with South Africa and Algeria).
• ² Only one leg was played between Kenya and Djibouti.

Algeria won by default and advanced to the second round.

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Egypt won by default and advanced to the second round.

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Mali won 6–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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2–2 on aggregate. Benin won the penalty shoot-out 4–3 and advanced to the second round.

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Equatorial Guinea won 5–4 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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South Africa won 12–3 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Tanzania won by default and advanced to the second round.

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Congo won 12–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Only one leg was played. Kenya won 7–0 and advanced to the second round.

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DR Congo won 6–2 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

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Senegal won 12–1 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.

Second round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Algeria	4–0	Egypt	1–0	3–0
Mali	4–1	Benin	3–1	1–0
Nigeria	n/p1	Equatorial Guinea	—	—
South Africa	7–0	Tanzania	4–0	3–0
Ghana	6–02	Congo	3–0	3–0
Cameroon	9–0	Kenya	4–0	5–0
DR Congo	3–2	Senegal	3–0	0–2

• ¹ The tie was scratched after CAF awarded the hosting rights to Nigeria; Equatorial Guinea also qualified.
• ² Congo were disqualified after they failed to appear for the first leg.

Algeria won 4–0 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

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Mali won 4–1 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

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The tie was scratched after Nigeria were awarded the hosting rights: Equatorial Guinea also qualified for the final tournament.

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South Africa won 7–0 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

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Congo disqualified; Ghana qualified for the final tournament.

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Cameroon won 9–0 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

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DR Congo won 3–2 on aggregate and qualified for the final tournament.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament1
Nigeria	Replacement hosts	17 May 2006	6 (1991, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004)
Equatorial Guinea	By default	17 May 2006	Debut
South Africa	Winners against Tanzania	4 August 2006	5 (1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004)
Algeria	Winners against Egypt	5 August 2006	1 (2004)
Ghana	Winners by default against Congo	5 August 2006	6 (1991, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004)
Cameroon	Winners against Kenya	5 August 2006	5 (1991, 1998, 2000, 2002)
DR Congo	Winners against Senegal	5 August 2006	1 (1998)
Mali	Winners against Benin	6 August 2006	2 (2002, 2004)

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

References