Nigeria, Ghana Snubbed From FIFA Shortlisted 8 African Referees For The 2022 World Cup.

• The world football governing body, has released the list of African referees to officiate at the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year. 

• Nigeria and Ghana were excluded again as the both West African nations will have no referees that would be officiating at the world biggest sporting event.

After selecting six referees from Africa in the last World Cup in Russia, FIFA has however, shortlisted eight African referees this time among the 36 referees, 63 assistant referees and 36 VAR officials who will be selected for the tournament.

The final list of referees would be announced one month before the World Cup begins.

Gambian referee, Bakary Papa Gassama, is among the eight  referees from Africa selected to officiate at the tournament. 

Gassama officiated at the 2014 and 2018 editions in Brazil and Russia respectively.

The renowned match official was the centre referee in the 2021 AFCON semi-final encounter between Cameroon vs Egypt, a match that saw him go to the touchline and show a red card to Egypt coach Carlos Queiroz. The game lasted for 120 minutes and then to penalties with Egypt winning 3-1.

He was recently heavily criticised for poor officiating in the second-leg Africa World Cup qualifying play-off game between Algeria vs Cameroon just last month.

Cameroon won the game away from home 2-1 after 120+4 minutes of extra-time, which sends the Indomitable Lions to the World Cup based on away goal rules.

Other African referees in the shortlist 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) 🇨🇩

The eight center referees picked all officiated at this year’s African Cup of Nations and had officiated in the previous World Cups.

They would all undergo training for some months ahead of the tournament which kick starts on November 21 to December 18, 2023.

Ghana, Cameroon, Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal all grabbed the five tickets to  represent Africa at the Mundail.