Why Nigerian Referees Are Not Allowed To Officiate AFCON Games -- CAF

 The Confederation of African Football (CAF) head of Refereing, Desire Noumandiez Doue, has given reasons for the exclusion of Nigerian referees from the 2023 African Cup of Nations roster.

According to Noumandiez Doue, Nigerian Referees were not selected because they are not deemed the best.

Doue had during a CAF referees training session at Sol Beni (ASEC Mimosas Training Centre) in Abidjan on Thursday, emphasised the importance of Nigerian referees enhancing their performance to be able to meet up to CAF standards.

Doue explaining why Nigeria has not officiated at AFCON for 18 years, acknowledged that Nigeria has competent referees but noted that they need to actively participate in CAF competitions.

He argued that while Nigeria has good referees for domestic and regional matches, CAF looks out for the absolute best for continental competitions like the AFCON.

“You have good referees in Nigeria, but this is our message to them, they need to come to the CAF competition, especially to the AFCON.

While noting that the selection process for referees spans over a year and a half, involving continuous scouting, evaluation, and selection, he said:

“We don’t need good referees; good referees are for the MAs, and good referees are for the zone, in CAF we need the best, so Nigerian referees are good, but they can still improve if they need assistance. They need to do more to be among the best because the selection has been started for one year and a half, so we are in a continuous process of scouting, evaluating, and selecting.”

The Ivorian referee highlighted the progression from young talent to elite levels, with the final selection for AFCON being made from the elite A category.

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Doue further encouraged Nigerian referees to strive for improvement, saying that the quest for the best referees is an ongoing process.

“You know we have different stages; you start with young talent, then you go to elite B; after that, you proceed to elite A, then you go professional among the best, and it’s among the elite A we picked from AFCON,” he continued.

The last time a Nigerian referee served as the center referee in a AFCON game was in 2006, 18 years ago.