Published: August 6, 2026
MONROVIA — Liberia will have no representation in African club football this season after the Liberia Football Association failed to register its two qualified clubs with the Confederation of African Football before the deadline, an administrative failure that has cost Watanga FC and Black Man Warrior FC their places in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup.
The association’s Executive Committee is contemplating relieving its Secretary General Emmett Crayton of his duties over the lapse, which officials described as a serious administrative failure that brought the association into public disrepute, multiple sources with knowledge of the matter told The Liberian Investigator. The LFA has announced no disciplinary action against Crayton, and he has not commented publicly.
Watanga qualified as First Division champions and Black Man Warrior as Orange Cup winners. Both are now shut out of the 2026-27 competitions and of the CAF participation and solidarity payments that come with reaching the continental stage.
Sources familiar with the matter said CAF sent at least two reminders to the LFA Secretariat during July urging the association to submit its representatives, and that the final reminder on July 25 gave the association until 9 p.m. Egypt time to complete the process. The clubs were never entered in CAF’s Competitions Management System before the deadline passed.
CAF requires each member association to submit its qualified clubs within a set registration window, ordinarily in July, ahead of preliminary rounds in August, and requires the clubs themselves to satisfy licensing standards covering sporting, infrastructure, legal, administrative and financial criteria. An association that misses the window is automatically excluded from that season’s interclub competitions.
The LFA Executive Committee has set up a three-member panel to establish how the registration failed. It is chaired by Third Vice President Jodie Reid Seton and includes Executive Committee members Elvis Sirleaf and Ousman Tall.
The association said the panel will examine the administrative processes surrounding Liberia’s participation in the 2026-27 CAF men’s interclub competitions, establish what prevented the two clubs from being registered on time, identify administrative failures, assign responsibility and recommend measures against a recurrence. The panel was given three days from Aug. 4 to report to the Executive Committee.
In a statement, the LFA said it regretted Liberia’s absence from this season’s competitions and acknowledged the disappointment caused to the affected clubs, their supporters and the wider football community.
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