… demands legal basis for cancelling Nigerian champions’ shoot-out victory
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has mounted a legal challenge against the Confederation of African Football (CAF) over its decision to annul Edo Queens’ WAFU-B final victory.
The federation in a statement signed by its Deputy General Secretary, Emmanuel Edem Ikpeme, insisted that an officiating error cannot, without a clear regulatory basis, be used to deprive an innocent Nigerian club of a title and continental ticket.
In its appeal filed Tuesday, September 29, 2026, the NFF is asking CAF’s Appeals Committee to overturn the ruling that cancelled Edo Queens’ 4-1 penalty shootout victory over Ghana’s Ampem Darkoa Ladies and ordered the final to resume from extra time.
The NFF’s argument is carefully defined: it does not dispute that the competition regulations required extra time after the 2-2 draw.
Rather, it challenges CAF’s authority to impose the particular remedy of nullifying the completed shoot-out where neither club caused the procedural error.
ALSO READ: CAF annuls Edo Queens’ win over Ampem Darkoa in WAFU-B final
The September 5 final in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, ended 2-2 after 90 minutes before the referee directed both teams to penalties.
Edo Queens won 4-1 and were crowned WAFU-B champions, securing the zone’s qualification ticket to the CAF Women’s Champions League.
Ampem Darkoa later protested that the regulations required two 15-minute periods of extra time before penalties.
CAF upheld the protest and ordered the final to resume from the 2-2 scoreline at the start of extra time.
The NFF, however, contends that the regulatory responsibility for applying the match procedure rested with the officials, while Edo Queens neither requested the omission of extra time nor refused to play it.
“Edo Queens neither elected nor requested that extra time be dispensed with,” the federation argued, maintaining that the players simply followed the referee’s instruction.
It further submitted: “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 federation is therefore asking CAF to draw a distinction between establishing an irregularity and determining its lawful consequence, arguing that the power to identify a breach does not, by itself, establish an unlimited power to impose any remedy.
According Ikpeme, CAF must identify a specific regulatory provision authorising the cancellation of the shoot-out and resumption of the final from extra time, particularly where its own findings do not attribute the error to either participating club.
CAF’s position is that extra time was mandatory and that the penalty shoot-out consequently occurred prematurely.
It has therefore ordered the final to continue from 2-2, with penalties to follow if the teams remain level.
The NFF is seeking restoration of Edo Queens’ original victory, a decision that would also preserve Nigeria’s WAFU-B qualification ticket for the CAF Women’s Champions League.
