The draw for the 2024 Olympic Games has been conducted and the African teams have been placed in tough groups.
One between South Africa or Nigeria will slot into Group C alongside reigning world champions Spain, Japan, and Brazil, while either Zambia or Morocco will be in Group B to face former FIFA Women’s World Cup winners, and four-time Olympic Games champions, the USA, as well as Rio 2016 champions Germany, and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup hosts, Australia.
The four CAF teams will battle it out next month in the fourth and final round to see which pair qualifies for the global football showpiece scheduled to place in Paris from 24 July – 10 August this year.
The Sasol-sponsored Banyana Banyana will travel to Nigeria for the first leg, set to be played on Thursday, 4 April 2024 in Abuja, with the reverse fixture penciled in for Tuesday, 9 April at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.
Kickoff in South Africa will be 19h30.
Desiree Ellis’ charges will start their training camp on Monday, 25 April with local-based players only.
According to competition rules, countries will only be able to select 18 players per team for the final tournament, and there are no age restrictions in the women’s section.
Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Draw:
Group A
France
Colombia
Canada
New Zealand
Group B
USA
CAF 2 (Zambia or Morocco)
Germany
Australia
Group C
Spain
Japan
CAF 1 (Nigeria or South Africa)
Brazil
While the men’s tournament boasts 16 countries, the women’s section has only 12 nations taking part.
Women’s Tournament (12 teams):
- AFC 2
- CAF 2
- Concacaf 2
- CONMEBOL 2
- OFC 1
- UEFA 2
- Host (France) 1
This is how they qualified:
| Nation | Confederation | FIFA rank | Qualified via |
| France | UEFA | 3 | Host nation |
| Spain | UEFA | 1 | 2024 UEFA Women’s Nations League winner |
| Germany | UEFA | 5 | 2024 UEFA Women’s Nations League third place |
| United States | CONCACAF | 4 | 2022 CONCACAF W Championship winners |
| Canada | CONCACAF | 9 | CONCACAF Olympic playoff winner |
| Japan | AFC | 7 | 2024 AFC Olympic qualifiers |
| Australia | AFC | 12 | 2024 AFC Olympic qualifiers |
| New Zealand | OFC | 28 | 2024 OFC Olympic qualifying winners |
| TBD (Zambia/Morocco) | CAF | — | 2024 CAF Olympic qualifiers |
| TBD (South Africa/Nigeria) | CAF | — | 2024 CAF Olympic qualifiers |
The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad Paris 2024 will be played across seven host cities.
The host stadiums:
- Parc des Princes, Paris
- Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux
- Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes
- Stade de Lyon, Lyon
- Stade de Marseille, Marseille
- Stade de Nice, Nice
- Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Etienne
Canada are the reigning champions, after claiming their first Olympic title at the Tokyo 2020 Games following victory over Sweden in the final. The USA took bronze while Australia finished in fourth place.
France is looking to become the second host country to win the Games after the USA in the inaugural competition in 1996.
Champions
1996: USA
2000: Norway
2004: USA
2008: USA
2012: USA
2016: Germany
2020: Canada
By Matlhomola Morake
