8th January, 2013
Confederation of Africa Football, CAF, has again snubbed Nigerian referees, as the body did not name any of them in the list of referees selected to officiate at the 2013 African Cup of Nations in South Africa.
CAF maintained its stand that Nigerian referees are not good enough, as it named 18 referees that will officiate matches at the Nations Cup, which kicks off on 19 January and ends on 10 February.
Edibe Peter Elgam, is the only Nigerian in the 21-man linesmen for the championship, but no Nigerian was considered good for the centre refereeing position.
South Africa’s Daniel Bennett and Zakhele Siwela make up the experienced group as there were only two changes to the list of referees and eight new assistants from the last finals held in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon last year.
The list includes two who have refereed previous finals – Mali’s Komlan Coulibaly from 2010 in Angola and Badara Diatta of Senegal, who took charge of last year’s final between Zambia and the Ivory Coast in Libreville. Coulibaly, 42, will set the record for the most finals officiated when he takes to the pitch in South Africa. This will be his seventh tournament since he first won a call-up to the Nations Cup panel in 2002. The other officials are from Kenya, Seychelles, Algeria and Senegal have the biggest representation with three officials each. Algeria’s Mohamed Benouza will take charge in his fifth tournament, while Diatta has also been to every final since 2006. It will be third successive Nations Cup for Bennett and the second for Siwela. Both are also on the shortlist for the 2014 World Cup.
The referees for the tournament will assemble in Johannesburg on 15 January for their pre-tournament tests. They will stay at Irene Lodge in Pretoria, which is closed to the public for the duration of the tournament.