Confederation of African Football (CAF) has disclosed why Nigerian referees are not selected to officiate at the Africa Cup of Nations and other football tournaments on the continent.
Noumandiez Doue, Head of Refereeing at the CAF, while speaking on Thursday during a CAF referees training session at Sol Beni (ASEC Mimosas Training Centre) in Abidjan, said Nigerian referees are good but need to do more.
For 18 years, no Nigerian referee has been selected among the officials for the biennial competition. This decision has, however, been debated among football stakeholders within the country.
In September, Nigerian football fans bemoaned the released lists of referees for the 2023 Total Energies Africa Cup of Nations ongoing in Cote d’Ivoire in 2024 for not having any referee from the country.
But, to justify this, Doue 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.