Edo Queens Begin WAFU-B CAF Women’s Champions League Qualifiers

Edo Queens will open their 2026 WAFU-B CAF Women’s Champions League qualifying campaign against AS Garde Nationale of Niger on Monday, 24 August. The Group B match is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at Stade du 4-Août in Ouagadougou, where the Nigerian champions are pursuing another route into the continental club competition.

The Benin-based side arrived in Burkina Faso on Saturday evening ahead of the tournament. The squad landed in the capital at about 6:00 p.m. aboard Air Côte d’Ivoire before travelling to the Splendid Hotel, their base for the qualifying campaign. The arrival gave Edo Queens a short period to settle before beginning preparations for their opening fixture.

Their first training session took place from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. on Saturday under interim head coach Kennedy Boboye. Boboye, who also manages Nigeria Premier Football League club Bendel Insurance, has taken charge of Edo Queens during the qualifiers because Moses Aduku is away with Nigeria’s Under-20 women’s team. Aduku is preparing that squad for the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland.

The coaching change is one of the notable details around Edo Queens’ campaign. Aduku had been serving as the club’s interim head coach, but his national-team assignment has required the Nigerian champions to begin their continental challenge under Boboye. The new coach therefore has limited preparation time to impose his approach while ensuring that the team remains focused on a tournament with only three group matches.

AS Garde Nationale will be the first test in a group that also contains ASEC Mimosas of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana’s Ampem Darkoa Ladies. Edo Queens’ second match is against ASEC on Thursday, 27 August, with kick-off set for 3:00 p.m. They will complete their Group B schedule against Ampem Darkoa on Sunday, 30 August, in a match scheduled for 4:00 p.m.

The sequence leaves little room for recovery between fixtures. After Monday’s evening opener, Edo Queens face ASEC three days later before returning to action on the final day of the group schedule. The different kick-off times will also create contrasting match conditions in Ouagadougou, with the first fixture starting in the evening and the remaining games taking place in the afternoon.

Edo Queens enter the competition as reigning Nigeria Women’s Football League champions and as the 2024 WAFU-B champions. That record gives the club recent experience of this regional qualification stage and a previous connection to the route leading to the CAF Women’s Champions League. Their immediate task, however, is to convert that background into points against three opponents from Niger, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

The regional tournament is scheduled to begin on 23 August, with the WAFU-B qualifiers determining which club advances to the CAF Women’s Champions League proper in South Africa later in the year. The other first-stage group contains hosts USFAS of Burkina Faso, Dynamique FC of Benin and ASOK Da-Kara Féminines of Togo. Edo Queens’ next step is the meeting with AS Garde Nationale, followed by the fixtures against ASEC and Ampem Darkoa that will decide their progress in Group B.