2024 AFCON: North Africans dominate, Nigerian referees missing again
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has released names of officials for the 2024 AFCON slated for Cote D’Ivoire, with no Nigerian referee selected.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that CAF on Tuesday released a 32-man list for referees, 33 assistant referees and two VAR officials on its official website.
The selected officials are expected to undergo a preparation course ahead of the tournament scheduled for January 13 to February 11, 2024.
Algeria and Egypt have three centre referees each, while Morocco, Mauritania, and Mauritius have two each.
Others on the list include Gabon, Ghana, Benin, Congo, Somalia among others.
For the Assistant Referees, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt Kenya, Cote D’Ivoire and South Africa have two names each.
Others are Comoros, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome and Principe among others.
Four VAR referees are selected from Mauritius, South Africa, Morocco and Egypt, while seven technical instructors and physical trainers from Zimbabwe, Burundi, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal, Morocco and Djibouti.
Three VAR Technicians and IT Support are selected from Egypt with Benin Republic and South Africa producing one CAF Referee committee member each.
NAN reports that Nigerian referees have not be selected by CAF to officiate as centre referees in the last five AFCONs.
Samuel Pwadutakam was the only official selected as an Assistant Referee at the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon.
Peter Edibe was selected for the 2015 AFCON in Equatorial Guinea while Abel Baba was in the mix in the 2017 AFCON in Gabon. (NAN)
