Kenya will play host to the CAF Women’s Champions League CECAFA qualifiers this year, with the tournament scheduled to run from Friday, September 4, to Tuesday, September 16, 2025, in Nairobi.

In a statement seen by the People Daily on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, the Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) announced that the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) successfully submitted a bid to stage the regional showdown, which will feature eight participating clubs from across the CECAFA region.

“We are happy that the tournament will be returning to Kenya after the inaugural one was hosted there in 2021,” CECAFA Competitions Director Yusuf Mossi said.

The regional football body scheduled the qualifiers to conclude before September 18th, 2025, ensuring that players will be available for their national teams in the early rounds of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup qualification campaign.

However, teams from Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and Djibouti will not be represented in this year’s edition.

Reigning champions Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) FC and South Sudan’s Yei Joint Stars are the only two clubs to have featured in every edition of the qualifiers since the tournament’s inception. The champion of the CECAFA qualifiers will earn a coveted spot at the 2025 CAF Women’s Champions League.

Kenya will be represented by the reigning Football Kenya Federation Women’s Premier League champions, Police FC, at the tournament. Top Girls Academy FC will be at the qualifiers, flying the flag of Burundi. South Sudan will be represented by Yei Joint Stars FC, while JKT Queens will be the only side from Tanzania to participate at this year’s tournament.

Other notable teams to be part of the qualifiers are CBE FC from Ethiopia, Kampala Queens from Uganda, Rayon Sports Women FC from Rwanda and JKU Princesses FC from Zanzibar.

Meanwhile, the confirmation comes amid Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania currently hosting the 2024 African Nations Championship jointly. At CHAN, Kenya and Tanzania started their respective campaigns on a winning note against DR Congo and Burkina Faso, respectively, while Uganda lost their opening fixture to Algeria.