The draws for the 2025/2026 Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Premiership Super Six have been concluded, setting up a highly competitive finale as Nigeria’s top six women’s clubs prepare to battle for the league title at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Hosted in Port Harcourt for the first time, it will be played in a round-robin format, with each team playing five matches.

At the end of the competition, the club with the highest points will be crowned champions and will represent Nigeria in the WAFU-B qualifiers for the CAF Women’s Champions League.

The opening round of matches will see Edo Queens FC face Nasarawa Amazons, while Rivers Angels FC take on FC Robo Queens, and Bayelsa Queens FC will square up against Abia Angels FC.

Match Day One will kick off with Edo Queens FC against Nasarawa Amazons in what is expected to be a keenly contested opener. Rivers Angels FC will then battle FC Robo Queens in a high-profile clash involving the host team, while Bayelsa Queens FC will complete the first round of fixtures against Abia Angels FC.

On Match Day Two, Abia Angels FC will take on Rivers Angels FC, Nasarawa Amazons will face Bayelsa Queens FC, and FC Robo Queens will confront Edo Queens FC.

Match Day Three will feature Edo Queens FC against Abia Angels FC, Rivers Angels FC against Bayelsa Queens FC, and FC Robo Queens against Nasarawa Amazons.

Match Day Four will see FC Robo Queens play Bayelsa Queens FC, Abia Angels FC meet Nasarawa Amazons, and Edo Queens FC clash with Rivers Angels FC.

Match Day Five will round off the group stage fixtures with Nasarawa Amazons versus Rivers Angels FC, Abia Angels FC against FC Robo Queens, and Bayelsa Queens FC facing Edo Queens FC.

The tournament is expected to deliver a tightly contested finish to the NWFL season as Nigeria’s top women’s football clubs compete for domestic supremacy and continental qualification.

Ahead of the tournament, scheduled to kick off on Saturday, June 6, and running through June 14, the Chief Operating Officer of the Nigeria Women Football League, Modupe Shabi, congratulated the qualified teams and assured them of a fair and level playing ground.

Speaking at the draw ceremony in Port Harcourt, Shabi commended the Rivers State Government for hosting the tournament and reaffirmed the league’s commitment to transparency and competitiveness.

Officials and coaches present at the draw, including Rivers Angels coach Tosan Blankson, Edo Queens General Manager Rollanson Odeh, and Nasarawa Amazons assistant coach Michael Oluwaseyi, expressed satisfaction with the fixtures and confidence in their teams’ chances.

Iran’s World Cup football players have been granted visas to enter the United States, a White ⁠House official told Reuters on Friday, just 10 days before their first match in Los Angeles amid a conflict between the two countries.

Iran’s ambassador to ‌Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said late on Thursday the squad had still not received their US visas but ‌these were granted overnight, the White House official said.

A spokesman for Iran’s ‌World Cup federation could not immediately be reached for comment.

The US had not yet ‌issued visas to some members of the Iran team’s technical and administrative staff, ‌the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Friday.

“Visas for some members of the national team’s technical and executive staff have not yet been issued, and the US embassy has so far ‌refused to issue them,” it said, without citing a ⁠source.

The Iran war has turned the World ‌Cup – the biggest global sporting event – into a geopolitical contest, with both sides appearing ​to use the tournament for political posturing.

It is the first World Cup, since its inception in 1930, in which a host nation is set ​to receive a country it is at war with.

Tehran negotiated a last-minute move of the team’s base from Arizona to Tijuana in Mexico due to the ⁠visa issues and a growing ​feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the United States should be kept to a minimum.

They are scheduled to land in Tijuana early on Sunday.

Iran are due to play their first Group G match on June 15th against New Zealand in ‌Los Angeles, where they will also face Belgium before taking on Egypt in Seattle.

The US had never formally said it did not want the Iranian team to stay on its territory, Ambassador Pasandideh said.

However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday that the US would not allow Iran to include in its World Cup delegation individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, a powerful branch of the Iranian armed forces.

Mehdi Taj, president of Iran’s football federation, was denied entry for the tournament draw in Washington in December. He is a former commander ‌in the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran’s desire to compete in the World Cup underscored its ​efforts to reach a resolution in the war with Washington, Pasandideh said.

“Iran’s ‌participation in the World Cup — even on the soil of what is seen as its enemy — shows that Iran seeks peace,” Pasandideh said, speaking through a Spanish interpreter at the Iranian embassy in Mexico City.

Progress in peace talks between Iran and the US has been slow, with both sides seemingly ⁠inching toward an interim agreement even ⁠as they continue to carry out ‌military strikes.

Clubs whose players go to the World Cup, or appeared in qualifying, will receive increased compensation this summer, FIFA, the governing body of world football, announced on Friday.

FIFA said it had increased the amount of money in its Club Benefits Programme to $355 million (306m euros). It had already announced last September that it planned this increase of 70 percent from the amount distributed for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

While FIFA does not give total revenue figures for the World Cup, it estimates that its total revenue this year will be 56 percent up on 2022, and for the four years to 2026, a period which includes an enlarged Club World Cup in 2025, it will have taken in 72 per cent more than in the previous cycle.

On the other hand, this World Cup is bigger. The field is increased from 36 teams to 48, the number of matches will rise from 64 to 104 and the competition will stretch over 39 days, against 29 last time.

Furthermore, clubs will be compensated for appearances in World Cup qualifying for the first time.

The total fund is divided into three parts.

A total of $250 million is reserved for compensation for players at the finals. FIFA calculated that the minimum payment per player will be $5,000 per day spent at the World Cup, “although the final figures will be confirmed after the conclusion of the tournament”.

These payments, FIFA said, “will be calculated on a per-player, per-day basis, taking into account both squad inclusion and the duration of each player’s involvement”.

Another $100 million is earmarked for qualifiers.

FIFA calculates it will pay $2,362 for each player in a match-day squad for the 905 qualifying games and for 10 friendlies for each of the three host nations, which did not need to qualify.

The remaining $5 million will pay administrative costs with any balance “allocated to the benefit of global club football”.

“This is another benefit from the expanded FIFA World Cup – providing more support across the entire football ecosystem to the clubs that provide all the players who compete to shine on the global stage,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino in the press release explaining the programme.

The payments are based on a player’s club registration when squads are announced but there are provisions for players who switch clubs during the tournament and for replacement players.

AFP