The Confederation of African Football, CAF has listed 85 referees of various departments ahead of the 2023 African Cup of Nations scheduled for Cote d’Ivoire in 2024.
In a PDF file titled “List Of Selected Referees To TotalEnergies AFCON Preparation Course”, referees from more than 26 countries are listed to take part in the course that serves as a refresher ahead of the bi-annual tournament.
Shockingly, no referee from Nigeria is selected amongst the 43 shortlisted for the course which means that there might not be any of our match officials at the Nations Cup.
Egypt and Algeria have the highest number of names penned down in the centre referees list (three each) as Morocco, Mauritania, and Mauritius have two each; other countries featured on the list are Gabon, Ghana, Benin, Congo, Somalia, and a host of others.
Morocco, Kenya, Cote D’Ivoire, Algeria, Egypt and South Africa have two names each on the assistant referees list, with Comoros, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome and Principe featuring amongst other countries.
Four VAR referees are selected from Mauritius, South Africa, Morocco and Egypt. Seven technical instructors and physical trainers from Zimbabwe, Burundi, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal, Morocco and Djibouti were selected.
Three VAR Technicians and IT Support are selected solely from Egypt with Benin Republic and South Africa producing one CAF Referee committee member each.