Black Queens Coach, Nora Hauptle, says the rescheduling of the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations to July 2025 in Morocco will give her the opportunity to monitor more players and strengthen her squad.

The competition was set to take place this year, but CAF, at an Executive Committee meeting last month, announced that the tournament has been pushed forward to next year.

The Black Queens have been in camp in Ghana for the past four days in preparation for an international friendly against Japan on Saturday, July 13.

Speaking to the media at the Accra Sports Stadium on Saturday, July 6, Hauptle outlined her plans for the team following the postponement of the Women’s AFCON.

“The WAFCON is postponed to next July in Morocco, so we needed to reschedule our planning a bit. First of all, we play Japan now. Japan is part of the top seven teams in the world in the FIFA rankings.

“They're, besides Spain, maybe the best ball possession team.

“We want to have a measurement with the top teams in the world to see where our strengths are, what we can deliver on this level and what we still need to work on.

“We're going to have plenty of friendly games in October and December. We want to use all the FIFA windows to make a good preparation.

“It's also a good time to screen more players and open up the squad.” 

‘It’s good. It’s an opportunity to monitor more players’

Black Queens Coach, Nora Hauptle, on the rescheduling of the 2024 Women’s AFCON to July 2024#JoySports pic.twitter.com/xEQHXwoHH1

— #EurosOnMGL (@JoySportsGH) July 6, 2024

The Black Queens will depart Ghana on Sunday for Japan ahead of the friendly game at the Kanazawa Go Go Curry Stadium on Saturday, July 13, 2024.