AFCON: Minister Decries Exclusion Of Nigerian Referees

AFCON: Minister Decries Exclusion Of Nigerian Referees

The Minister of Sports Development, Sen. John Owan-Enoh, has expressed displeasure over the non-inclusion of Nigerian referees amongst match officials listed for the 2023 AFCON slated for Cote D’Ivoire in January. Enoh stated this on Thursday in Abuja while reacting to the list of match officials released by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) ahead of the tournament scheduled for January, 2024. He said given Nigeria’s football pedigree and population the country should not be in such a predicament that is now becoming a trend. The minister promised to hold engagements with relevant stakeholders such as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Nigeria Referees Association (NRA), among others, with a view to reversing the trend. “At the last AFCON (2021), Nigeria only had one assistant referee listed amongst the match officials. Two years prior, we didn’t have any centre referee too. “Going in to the next AFCON (2023), we still won’t have any Nigerian official and I am going to interrogate this matter. “We will have engagements with the NFF, the Referees’ Association, the League Board, because we need to get to the bottom of this,” he said. Enoh noted that without prejudice to the outcome, the development calls for a reflection of the institutional setting within which sports is being administered in the country. He reiterated his commitment to ensuring that sports across all facets thrives in the country, for Nigeria to stand tall in the comity of nations. CAF on Tuesday unveiled 85 referees, comprising of centre referees, assistant referees, VARs, technical instructors, for the 2023 AFCON, without any Nigerian official included. Egypt and Algeria, both in North Africa, have three names listed in the centre referees list, followed by Morocco, Mauritania, and Mauritius, each with two. Other nations on the list include Gabon, Ghana, Benin, Congo, Somalia and others. The assistant referees list includes two representatives from each of Morocco, Kenya, Cote D’Ivoire, Algeria, Egypt, and South Africa, as well as lesser-known nations like Comoros, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, and Sao Tome and Principe. There are four VAR referees chosen from Mauritius, South Africa, Morocco, and Egypt. The following nations were chosen for the technical instructors and physical trainers: Zimbabwe, Burundi, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal, Morocco, and Djibouti. The 2023 AFCON finals, which are scheduled to take place from January 13 to February 11, 2024, will feature 24 nations vying for the championship, including Nigeria’s Super Eagles. 

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All invited players are now in the camp of the Super Eagles in Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos as countdown begins for Sunday’s 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying showdown with the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone in Monrovia. Table-toppers Nigeria, on nine points, will slug it out with the Leone Stars, four points behind and in third place, at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium in Paynesville, Monrovia. The 22,000 -capacity arena will witness fireworks from 5pm Nigeria time (4pm Liberia time) as the Super Eagles seek to reach the finals of the 34th Africa Cup of Nations, scheduled for Cote d’Ivoire early next year, with a game to spare. For the last edition of Africa’s flagship football championship, the Super Eagles qualified for the finals with a game to spare after Paul Onuachu headed in with few minutes left against Benin Republic’s Guepards in Porto Novo. Three-time champions Nigeria will fire from all cylinders at the Paynesville, conscious that second-placed Guinea Bissau, two points behind, are likely to inflict defeat on group whipping boys Sao Tome and Principe in the other match of the pool. In the last weeks of 2020, the Leone Stars famously came from 4-1 down to draw 4-4 with the Super Eagles at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City in another Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match (Cameroon 2021), and few days later, held the Eagles to a barren draw at the Siaka Stevens Stadium in Freetown. When both teams clashed on Day 1 of the ongoing series at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja a year ago, the Leone Stars drew the first blood before goals by Alex Iwobi and Victor Osimhen put Nigeria in the driving seat. The Eagles flew to Agadir, Morocco some days later to inflict a 10-0 defeat on Sao Tome and Principe, in the event setting a new international win-record. The Confederation of African Football has appointed Sudanese official Mahmood Ali Ismail as the referee for Sunday’s encounter, with his compatriot Mohammed Abdallah Ibrahim as assistant referee 1. Liban Abdourazak Ahmed from Djibouti will serve as assistant referee 2, with Mohamed Diraneh Guedi, also from Djibouti, in the role of fourth official. Gambian Bakary Jammeh will be the commissioner while Kokou Djaoupe from Togo will serve as referee assessor.