The Nigeria Football Federation has appealed against CAF’s decision to annul Edo Queens’ penalty shootout win over Ampem Darkoa in the WAFU B Women’s Champions League qualifying final, arguing that the Benin City club should not be punished for a referee’s mistake. The NFF lodged the appeal on Tuesday, 30 September, two days after CAF voided the 4-1 shootout result and ordered the final to resume from extra time.
CAF Women's Champions League, WAFU B final
Shootout annulled by CAF, under appeal
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso · 5 September 2026
How a skipped extra time turned Edo Queens’ title into a dispute
The final in Ouagadougou finished 2-2 after regulation time, and the match officials sent both teams straight to penalties instead of playing the extra time required under Article 72.4 of the competition regulations. Edo Queens won the shootout 4-1, but CAF ruled on Sunday, 28 September that the shootout was invalid and that the final should restart at the extra-time stage, a decision that gave the Ghanaian side a second chance at qualification. SportCabal reported CAF’s original ruling here.
The NFF’s case rests on who caused the error
In its appeal, the NFF argued that Edo Queens simply followed the referee’s instructions and did nothing to bring about the breach. The federation said the club “did not misrepresent the Regulations to the referee or otherwise induce the referee to depart from Article 72.4”, and it accused CAF’s committee of acting unfairly “by holding Edo Queens responsible for a referee’s administrative error”.
The NFF also drew a line between profiting from a mistake and causing one, saying there is “an important distinction between benefiting from an official’s error and causing or procuring the error”. It added that “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”, and asked CAF to restore the shootout result.
What happens next for Edo Queens
The case now goes before CAF’s appeal body, and no date has been announced for a ruling or for the extra-time restart that CAF ordered. Until the appeal is decided, it remains unclear whether Edo Queens or Ampem Darkoa will represent the WAFU B zone at the CAF Women’s Champions League finals.
The ruling had already drawn a strong reaction in Edo State, with Harrison Jalla criticising CAF over the annulment. Three Edo Queens players, Christiana Uzoma, Tumininu Adeshina and Oluwakemi Adegbuyi, have meanwhile been called up by the Super Falcons for this month’s Olympic qualifier against Comoros.
