The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh, has expressed his disappointment over the exclusion of Nigerian referees from the list of match officials for the upcoming 2024 African Cup of Nations in Cote D’Ivoire.
He emphasized that considering Nigeria’s population and football history, this situation is unacceptable.
Senator Enoh has assured that he will engage with relevant bodies to address this matter and ensure Nigerian officials are included in future tournaments.
It will be recalled that the Confederation of African Football, CAF had listed 85 referees of various departments ahead of the AFCON.
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Surprisingly, no referee from Nigeria was selected amongst the referees shortlisted for the course which signifies that there might not be any of the country’s match officials at the Nations Cup next year.
The Minister stated thus “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 referees either. Going into the next AFCON, we still won’t have any Nigerian officials.
“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.”
The African Nations Cup is billed to take place between January 13 and February 11, 2024, across five cities in Cote D’Ivoire.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles topped Group A of the qualifying series to secure participation.
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