The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has formally challenged the Confederation of African Football (CAF) over its controversial decision to reverse Edo Queens’ WAFU-B Women’s Champions League final victory against Ghana’s Ampem Darkoa Ladies. The NFF is demanding the restoration of the original result, which saw the Nigerian side triumph 4-1 on penalties and secure the zone’s sole ticket to the CAF Women’s Champions League.
The appeal, filed on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, comes in the wake of CAF’s unprecedented decision to annul the shoot-out result and order the final to resume from extra time. CAF ruled that the required 30 minutes of extra time had unlawfully been bypassed.
The Heart of the Controversy :
The September 5 final, held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, ended in a 2-2 stalemate after 90 minutes of regulation time. Instead of initiating the mandatory 30-minute extra time as stipulated in the competition’s rulebook for the final match, the referee immediately directed both teams straight to a penalty shoot-out.
Edo Queens emerged victorious, winning 4-1, and were officially celebrated as WAFU-B champions.
However, Ampem Darkoa subsequently filed a protest, citing the competition regulations that explicitly mandate extra time before penalties in a drawn final. CAF upheld the Ghanaian club’s protest, ruling that the penalty shoot-out was invalid because the prescribed procedural steps were not followed. Consequently, CAF ordered the final to resume from the 2-2 scoreline at the start of extra time, with penalties to follow if the deadlock remained unbroken.
NFF’s Legal Defence : “Clubs Cannot Be Punished for Referee Errors”
In its appeal, the NFF is heavily contesting the remedy applied by CAF, arguing that Edo Queens should not be penalized for an administrative error made by CAF’s own appointed match officials.
The NFF stressed that Edo Queens merely followed the directives given on the pitch. “Edo Queens neither elected nor requested that extra time be dispensed with,” the federation argued in its submission.
The NFF further stated: “The fact that Edo Queens ultimately won the shoot-out cannot retrospectively convert its compliance with the referee’s instruction into responsibility for the regulatory breach.”
The Nigerian federation is urging CAF to identify a specific legal precedent or basis that justifies canceling a completed shoot-out and reopening a finalized match, especially when neither participating team was responsible for the procedural blunder.
High Stakes for Nigerian Women’s Football
The outcome of this appeal carries massive implications, as it will determine the WAFU-B zone’s legitimate representative in the highly lucrative and prestigious CAF Women’s Champions League.
For Edo Queens and the NFF, the battle has shifted from the pitch to the boardroom. The central argument remains clear: a team should not be stripped of a hard-fought victory and sporting advantage due to a procedural mistake made entirely by the match officials administering the final.
