Bayelsa Queens Begin FIFA Women’s Champions Cup Qualification Race in Abidjan

Nigeria’s Bayelsa Queens have arrived in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to begin their campaign in the WAFU Zone B qualifiers for the CAF Women’s Champions League, a tournament that now serves as Africa’s pathway to the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.
The reigning Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) Premiership champions were received at the airport by Robert Terlumun Akpenpuun, a former Nigeria Premier League match commissioner and NFF protocol officer who now serves on diplomatic assignment at the Nigerian Embassy in Côte d’Ivoire.
Akpenpuun is also an Assistant Comptroller in the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
Bayelsa Queens’ mission in Abidjan is to secure qualification from the West African regional competition and return to the continental stage at the CAF Women’s Champions League later this year.
A triumph in Abidjan would secure the team Africa’s sole ticket to the maiden FIFA Women’s Champions Cup, billed as the women’s equivalent of a World Club Championship.
Already, four clubs have booked their places at the global event: Arsenal (England), Gotham FC (United States), Auckland United (New Zealand), and Wuhan Jiangda (China)—winners of their respective continental crowns in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia.
The final two slots will go to the champions of the Copa Libertadores Femenina (South America) in October and the CAF Women’s Champions League (Africa) in November.
Bayelsa Queens, carrying Nigeria’s hopes, will now aim to write their name in history by becoming the first African club to step onto women’s football’s biggest global stage.