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The 2026 CAF Women's Champions League CECAFA zonal qualifiers begin today at the Kigali Pele Stadium in Rwanda. Ten clubs from ten East and Central African nations, one continental ticket available, eleven days to decide who takes it. The tournament that opens today is the regional gateway to African women's club football's most prestigious competition, and three nations with direct Sport Blot audiences are competing for the right to represent the CECAFA zone at the CAF Women's Champions League finals. Uganda's Kawempe Muslim Ladies. Tanzania's Simba Queens. Kenya's Police Bullets. One of them advances. The other two return home with the qualifying campaign to build from.
The stakes are specific and clearly attached to the AFCON 2027 context. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are co-hosting the continental men's championship next June. Women's club football's visibility in those three nations, its infrastructure, its broadcast presence and its commercial development, are all connected to the broader argument each country is making about football's place in their national sporting culture. A CECAFA representative at the CAF Women's Champions League finals is not just a sporting achievement. It is a programme statement, delivered on a continental stage, that says this region is producing competitive club football at the highest level. That argument, made from the Kigali Pele Stadium over the next eleven days, begins at today's opening fixtures.
The Groups and What They Contain
Group A is hosted by Rayon Sport of Rwanda and contains Yei Joint Stars of South Sudan, Mafunzo Queens of Zanzibar and Denden Women of Eritrea. It is the tournament's widest group in terms of competitive range: Rayon Sport are experienced CECAFA regulars with infrastructure and squad depth that the smaller nations cannot match. The group is expected to produce Rayon Sport as winners with the second place contested by Yei Joint Stars and Mafunzo Queens.
Group B is the tournament's most competitive group by recent record. Kawempe Muslim Ladies of Uganda are the FUFA Women Super League champions, having won the title on the final day of the season in May with a 3-1 victory over Olila High School. Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, known as CBE, won the 2024 CECAFA qualifiers and represent the region at the CAF Women's Champions League with the strongest recent continental record of any team in this tournament. They are the defending CECAFA champions. FC Ujeco of Djibouti completes the group and will be the points expected to separate the two genuine contenders. Kawempe against CBE is the fixture that determines who advances from Group B, and it carries the weight of two programmes with unfinished continental business.
Group C pairs Simba Queens of Tanzania, Kenya Police Bullets and Top Girls Academy of Burundi. Simba Queens won the 2022 CECAFA qualifiers and have been the most consistent East African representative at the CAF Women's Champions League in recent years. Kenya Police Bullets finished as runners-up in 2024, losing to CBE in the final, and arrive with the specific experience of having been close and fallen short. The Police Bullets carry a notable Ugandan contingent: Margaret Kunihira, the league's Golden Boot winner and MVP with 16 goals and 10 assists this season, plays for the Kenyan club alongside goalkeeper Daisy Nakaziro and defender Desire Katisi Natooro. The FUFA thread runs across the tournament from multiple directions.
The Format and the Prize
The top two teams from Group A advance to the semi-finals. The group winners from Groups B and C join them. The Group B winner faces the Group A runner-up, and the Group A winner faces the Group C winner. Semi-finals on August 27 at the FERWAFA Technical Centre, third-place playoff and final on August 29. The tournament champion earns the CECAFA region's sole ticket to the 2026 CAF Women's Champions League final tournament. AS FAR Rabat, who won the competition in its previous edition, have already qualified as defending champions. The CECAFA winner joins them alongside the champions of the other five zonal qualifiers and the host nation's representative.
For Kawempe Muslim, the tournament represents another opportunity to complete what the club has described as unfinished continental business. This is their second CECAFA qualifier appearance, and the first ended at the semi-final stage in 2024 when they were beaten by CBE. The rematch, in the group stage this time rather than the knockout round, will be the defining fixture of the tournament's first week. Sport Blot will carry match reports and standings updates from Kigali through to the final on August 29.
