Four Coaches, Sixteen Teams: Africa's Slow Climb to Trust Women on the Bench
The Women's Africa Cup of Nations kicks off in Morocco on July 26 with sixteen teams chasing the continental title. Off the pitch, a smaller number tells its own story. Zambia, Kenya, South Africa and now Cameroon are the only nations walking into the tournament with a woman in the head coach's seat.
That is progress, from 16.7 percent of head coaches at the 2025 edition to 25 percent this year, but it still means three in four WAFCON benches are led by men, even at a tournament built around women's football.
"They need to not just appoint them"
Desiree Ellis, who led South Africa to the 2022 WAFCON title and has been named African Women's Coach of the Year four times, told DW that federations have to back appointments with real support. "That needs to happen, and federations need to be brave and appoint female coaches. They need to not just appoint them but give them support, otherwise they are not going to succeed," Ellis said.
South Africa's federation made female-only coaching of women's teams a policy years before FIFA's rule this year requiring at least one female coach on every women's team bench.
Kenya's Juma wants licensing to force the issue
Jackline Juma, head coach of Kenya's U-20 women's team, told DW the problem isn't talent, it's trust. "We don't have many female coaches in charge of African female teams. It's because they still don't trust women, don't give them chances, the support is not as much as for male coaches," she said. Juma wants club licensing rules that prioritise female head coaches for women's teams, with the first assistant role reserved for women too.
Vicky Huyton, founder of the Female Coaching Network, told DW that while only 20 percent of national women's teams globally are led by women, those coaches account for 90 percent of major championship wins between them. She said African coaches often reach out to her with nowhere to go. "I have a passion, I have a want, but I have nowhere to go," is how she described the message she hears most.
Ellis pointed to a pipeline building behind the current generation, naming Lamia Boumehdi, CAF's reigning Coach of the Year now in charge of Morocco's U20s, Adelaide Koudougnon, who took Ivory Coast to a first U17 tournament, and Zambia's Carol Kanyemba and Kenya's Mildred Cheche, both multiple-time U17 World Cup coaches.
