Vihiga Queens to discover opponents in Champions League qualifying draw set for Wednesday

The draw for the 2023 CAF Women’s Champions League Zonal qualifiers is set to be conducted on Wednesday 5 July 2023 in Rabat, Morocco.

Ahead of the draw, Ethiopia's Central Bank of Ethiopia FC is the top-seeded team in this year's edition in the region and will occupy one group while Uganda's Kampala Queens will be in the other.

The Ethiopian Women’s Premier League champions are ranked top having finished third at the 2022 qualifiers held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and in the absence of the teams that finished top and second, Simba Queens and She Corporate FC respectively, they occupy the top rank.

Uganda is set to host the zonal qualifiers from 12 August to 29 August with the winner punching the sole ticket to represent the region at the continental showpiece.

Kenya missed the chance to send a representative last year as the country was serving a FIFA suspension at the time.

However, Vihiga Queens will be hoping to return with a bang having won the inaugural regional tournament in 2021 and represented the CECAFA region at the main event in Egypt.

Unlike in the previous two editions where the draw was conducted at the zonal level, draws for the qualifiers for all the regions will be conducted centrally this time around.

The CAF Women's Champions League main event is set to be held in Cote d’Ivoire with the date yet to be confirmed.

At the CAF Women’s Champions League finals last year, the winners ASFAR (Morocco) bagged a cash prize of USD 400 000, an equivalent of Ksh 56,300,000 while the runners-up Mamelodi Sundowns received USD 250 000 (Ksh 35,187,500). The losing semi-finalists received USD 200 000 (Ksh 28,150,000) each.

CECAFA Zone Qualifiers confirmed teams

Vihiga Queens (Kenya), Kampala Queens (Uganda), Central Bank of Ethiopia FC (Ethiopia), AS Kigali (Rwanda), Yei joint Stars (South Sudan), JKT Queens FC (Tanzania), Buja Queens FC (Burundi), FAD Club (Djibouti), and New Generation FC (Zanzibar).