Rivers United were two goals down at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on 13 September 2026 before they hauled FC San Pedro back to 2-2. It was not enough. 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.”
The league is another story.
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.
Uyo is familiar territory anyway. 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. Both were state-owned. Both were short of money. 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. Last season was closer. 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.
Two grounds, one waiting game
Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium sits at the northern end of the city, in Omagwa. It opened on 19 July 2015 with a Nigeria win over Congo in an Olympic qualifier. It holds about 38,000. Rivers United have played there since 2020, and Rivers Angels share it.
The older ground is in Elekahia. For years it was the Liberation Stadium, renamed after Yakubu Gowon in 2015, and it staged Brazil and Spain at the 1999 World Youth Championship before serving Dolphins and, later, Rivers United. It is now being rebuilt. In June, ThisDay reported the contractor's claim that the job was more than 90 per cent done, for a capacity of about 16,000, while Christopher Green, the Rivers State attorney general who also oversees sport, went further. “I can assure you that CAF, FIFA would approve this stadium for matches,” he said. The pitch, the contractor insisted, had to be ready before September. When San Pedro came, Rivers United were in Uyo.
Football clubs in Port Harcourt by division, 2026/27
| Level | Club | Home ground | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| NPFL | Rivers United | Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium | CAF matches in Uyo |
| NNL | No Rivers State club | Not applicable | None in 2025/26 or among the promoted sides |
| NWFL Premiership | Rivers Angels | Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium | Fifth in the 2025/26 Super Six |
Rivers United are the state's only club in the 20-team NPFL for 2026/27, a season that began on 28 August. None of last season's NNL clubs came from Rivers State, and none of the promoted quartet of Sporting Lagos, Inter Lagos, Doma United and Ranchers Bees does either. We found no current, sourced Nationwide League One list for the state. So none appears here.
That is a thin map. Lagos now has three NPFL sides, as our guide to football clubs in Lagos shows, and the full list of NPFL clubs and stadiums makes the contrast plain.
The clubs Port Harcourt lost
Dolphins began life in 1988 as Eagle Cement and won the 1997 league title under that name. Renamed in 2001, they lifted the FA Cup in 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2007 and reached the 2005 CAF Confederation Cup final, which FAR Rabat won.
Sharks were older. Founded in 1972 and nicknamed the Blue Angels, they lost FA Cup finals in 1979, 2003 and 2009 and won the West African club championship in 2010. Crowd trouble in 1998 nearly pushed them to Abeokuta; they missed their last six games in protest and were suspended for two years. Their own Sharks Stadium held about 5,000. The big games went to Liberation Stadium.
Both names now live only inside Rivers United.
The newest football address in the city is the Real Madrid academy in Port Harcourt. The bigger question is whether the rebuilt Yakubu Gowon Stadium can bring CAF football back to Rivers State before the next continental campaign.
This article was most recently revised and updated 18 seconds ago
