FIFA Picks 8 African Referees For Qatar World Cup, Ignores Nigeria

Yet again, Nigerian referees have been left out of the list of African officials put together by world football governing body, FIFA, to officiate at this year’s World Cup in Qatar.

The eight centre referees picked all officiated at this year’s African Cup of Nations with some of them already officiating at previous World Cups.

Leading the list is Gambian referee Papa Bakary Gassama who officiated at the 2014 and 2018 editions in Brazil and Russia respectively.

Others are:

• Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria)

• Redouane Jiyed (Morocco)

• Tesssema Balmak (Ethiopia)

• Victor Gomez (South Africa)

• Janny Sikazwe (Zambia)

• Maguette N’diaye (Senegal)

• Jean Jacques Ndala (RD Congo)

Five countries (Ghana, Cameroon, Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal) will represent Africa at the World Cup that starts on November 21st and finishes on December 18th.