Football clubs in Port Harcourt and Rivers State: 2026/27 guide
The Ivorians went through on away goals after a 3-3 aggregate, and the best of the football clubs in Port Harcourt left the CAF Champions League at the first preliminary round, in a stadium that is not theirs and not even in Rivers State. City Port Harcourt, the Garden City, Rivers State NPFL club Rivers United, founded 2016 Origins Merger of Sharks and Dolphins League titles Rivers United 2021/22; Dolphins 2011; Eagle Cement 1997 Main ground Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, about 38,000 CAF venue 2026/27 Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo 2025/26 finish Second, one place behind Enugu Rangers Women's top flight Rivers Angels, NWFL Premiership Why Uyo and not the Garden City Uyo was not a choice.
Daily Trust reported on 5 September that the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium had been ruled unfit for CAF competition, so Rivers United took their continental home games to Akwa Ibom while Enugu Rangers, Shooting Stars and El-Kanemi Warriors were also pushed out of their usual grounds. Shooting Stars' management summed it up: "Only three stadiums were approved nationwide by CAF.
Within days of the San Pedro exit, the Pride of Rivers opened their NPFL campaign at Adokiye Amiesimaka with a 2-0 win over Warri Wolves. Abdulrasheed Shehu Dabai scored after 22 minutes.
Chinemerem Ugwueze, off the bench, added the second. So Port Harcourt keeps its league football.
Only the CAF nights have moved east. Rivers United lost 2-0 to Young Africans there in the first leg of the 2023 Confederation Cup quarter-final, Fiston Mayele scoring twice.
In March 2024, Kazie Goodwill's stoppage-time winner against Ghana's Dreams FC in the same city sent them back to the last eight. Sharks, Dolphins and one merger Rivers United did not grow out of nothing.
On 19 February 2016 the then Rivers State sports commissioner, Boma Iyaye, announced that Sharks and Dolphins would become one. Sharks had been relegated in 2015 and Dolphins had only just stayed up, so the new club, built from the pair of them, took the Dolphins place in the top flight.
The title came six years later. Rivers United won the 2021/22 NPFL with four games to spare on 77 points, a league record, and it was the first championship for a Rivers side since Dolphins took the crown in 2011.
Finidi George's team beat Katsina United 3-0 in Port Harcourt on 24 May. Rangers also won, 2-1 against Ikorodu City in Lagos, to claim a ninth league crown."