The official draw for the 2026 CAF Women’s Champions League CECAFA qualifiers will take place on July 30^th at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali, Rwanda.

Yusuf Mossi, the Competitions Manager of the Council of East and Central Africa Football (CECAFA) disclosed that the draw will take place at 10.30am (Rwanda time).

Ten teams will take part in the qualifiers which will run August 21-31^st in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

Simba Queens from Tanzania and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia FC who have lifted the regional trophy once will also feature in the qualifiers.

The winner of the regional qualifiers will represent CECAFA at the CAF Women’s Champions League 2026. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is yet to announce the venue and dates of the tournament.

Teams to be drawn

Top Girls Academy (Burundi), FC Ujeco (Djibouti), Commercial Bank of Ethiopia FC (Ethiopia), Denden FC (Eritrea), Kenya Police Bullets (Kenya), Rayon Sport WFC (Rwanda), Yei Joint Stars (South Sudan), Simba Queens (Tanzania), Kawempe Muslim Ladies (Uganda), Mafunzo WFC (Zanzibar)

Tanzania’s JKT Queens have exited the on-going CAF Women’s Champions League 2025 in Egypt

Going into the last Group B match on Saturday against TP Mazembe, the CECAFA champions needed a win to advance to the knock out stage.

Despite scoring early through Stumai Abdallah after 14 minutes, JKT Queens lost 4-1 to the DR Congo team. After their 1-1 draw against Gaborone United and ASEC Mimosas, the Tanzanian team finished with two points.

Kessy Abdallah, the JKT Queens coach said that although they failed to advance to the next stage, the team has learnt some lessons.

“We played three matches, drew twice and lost once. Our young team has learnt a lot on how to handle matches at this big stage,” explained Abdallah.

The coach explained that the team did not respond well especially on the defending side, but also failed to take the many scoring opportunities they created.

CECAFA representatives JKT Queens have been drawn in Group B of the 2025 CAF Women’s Champions League.

The Tanzanian Women’s League champions were placed in Group B alongside TP Mazembe (DR Congo), ASEC Mimosas (Ivory Coast) and Botswana’s Gaborone United in the draw  conducted on Monday in Cairo, Egypt.

Egypt will host the eight team 2025 CAF Women’s Champions League from November 8-21^st.

Group A has the likes of FC Masar (Egypt), ASFAR (Morocco), 15 De Agosto (Equatorial Guinea) and Mali’s USFAS Bamako.

It will be the second time that JKT Queens play in the top African Women’s Club competition. Another Tanzanian team Simba Queens are the best performers from the CECAFA Zone in the competition when they finished 4^th in 2022.

The head coach of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) women’s team has said that despite falling out at the group stage, they picked great lessons playing at the CAF Women’s Champions League.

CBE, the CECAFA Women’s Champions League reigning champions lost all their three group matches at the tournament on-going in Morocco.

They opened with a 3-0 defeat to Edo Queens (Nigeria), and suffered a 4-0 defeat to South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns. In the last group match played last Saturday, CBE lost 2-1 to FC Masar (Egypt) with Senaf Wakuma scoring their only goal of the tournament.

Heye Gizaw Birhanu, the CBE coach has made it clear that there are several lessons that his players and even the technical bench take back home. “We were playing in the CAF Women’s Championship League final tournament for the first time and several things were new to us. Playing against top sides in Africa has been a great eye opener for us and we are not the same now,” said Birhanu.

The coach made it clear that with the lessons they have picked from the tournament they will come back a better and improved side.