The efforts of Nigeria Football Federation to enhance the capacity of Nigerian referees and make them more professional and diligent are paying off steadily with the referees receiving greater consideration for international matches, the latest being appointments of two sets for an African qualifying match for the 2016 Olympics Women Football Tournament and an African U-23 Championship qualifier.
Nigerian women officials Uloma Nwogu, Iyorhe Mimisen, Bosede Momoh and Hadiza Musa will serve as Referee, 1st Assistant Referee, 2nd Assistant Referee and Reserve Referee respectively for an Olympics qualifier between Cameroon and Liberia in Yaounde next month.
The match is the first leg of a qualifying fixture for the Women’s Football Tournament of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a race in which the Super Falcons of Nigeria will also be confronting their Malian counterparts.
Benjamin Odey, Usman Isah, Efosa Celestine Igudia and Henry Ogunyamodi will be Referee, 1st Assistant Referee, 2nd Assistant Referee and Reserve Referee respectively for an African U-23 Championship qualifier between Ghana and Liberia.
Incidentally, the winner between Ghana and Liberia will proceed to face Congo Brazzaville in another round, and the winner of that round will take on the Nigeria U-23 team in the second round of the series which will lead to the African U-23 Championship in Senegal. The competition in Senegal will produce Africa’s three representatives at the Men’s Football Tournament of next year’s Olympics.
As thenff.com earlier reported, Joshua Opeyemi Amao, Peter Edibi, Abel Baba and Abubakar Ago will be Referee, 1st Assistant Referee, 2nd Assistant Referee and Reserve Referee for a CAF Confederation Cup second round, second leg match between ASEC Mimosas and Onze Createurs of Mali in Abidjan, next weekend.
And only last Sunday, Nigeria’s Jelili Ogunmuyiwa became the first Nigerian referee in decent memory to officiate a CAF Championship Final match, when he took charge of the African Beach Soccer Championship between Madagascar and Senegal in Seychelles.
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