With just a few hours to go before kickoff of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations semifinal between Morocco and Cameroon, scheduled for this Wednesday at Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat, a controversy over ticket sales is disrupting the Indomitable Lionesses’ preparations. In a letter addressed to the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, Cameroon’s ambassador to Morocco, Mohamadou Houssifou, directly called out the organizers.
In the letter, he denounced the “unusual” difficulties encountered since this morning in purchasing tickets for Cameroonian fans. Unlike previous matches in the tournament, where tickets could be purchased without issue, persistent obstacles are, according to him, preventing the transaction from going through.
The embassy has estimated the need at approximately 1,000 tickets: 50 in Category 1 and 950 in Category 3, which will be paid for by the Cameroonian diplomatic mission. At this stage, no specific accusations have been made regarding the cause of these difficulties. Cameroon is simply calling for a swift solution to be found so that its fans can attend the match.
On the field, the stakes are incredibly high. The Atlas Lionesses, spurred on by a consistently large Moroccan crowd, secured their spot in the semifinals by defeating South Africa (2-1). For their part, the Cameroonian women pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament by eliminating Nigeria, the ten-time African champion, with a 1-0 victory.
This match will be the fourth time these two teams have faced off. Cameroon won 4-1 in their first meeting at the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations. Morocco got its revenge with a 1-0 victory at the 2021 Aisha Buhari Cup, before Cameroon secured another win by the same score in a friendly match in Casablanca in 2025.
In their first-ever meeting in the knockout stage of the Africa Cup of Nations, a spot in the final is on the line, and all of North and Central Africa is holding its breath.
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