Nigerian referees are average, can’t officiate AFCON — CAF

The Confederation of African Football has revealed that the reason Nigerian referees are not selected to officiate at the Africa Cup of Nations and other football tournaments on the continent is because they are not good enough.

This was disclosed on Thursday by the Head of Refereeing at the CAF, Noumandiez Doue, during a CAF referees training session at Sol Beni (ASEC Mimosas Training Centre) in Abidjan.

No Nigerian referee has been selected among the officials for the biennial competition for 18 years.

Doue said Nigerian referees need to do more.

Doue while justifying the decision not to select Nigerian referees, said CAF goes for the best on the continent and not just average referees.

“You have good referees in Nigeria and to come to AFCON you have to be the best.

“Good referees are for the Zones, you have to be the best to come to the CAF competitions.

“Nigeria referees are improving but they need to do more to be among the best because the selection has started in the last one and a half years.

“We are in the scouting process of evaluating and to the end of selection.

“We have different stages, you start from young talent to elite B, elite A, and professional, it’s among the elite B we picked for the AFCON,” he said.