CAF Invites Two Nigerian Referees For All Africa Games

The Confederation of African Football has invited two Nigerian referees to officiate at the football tournaments of the 11thAll-Africa Games, taking place in Brazzaville, Congo, 3-18 September this year.

While Amao Opeyemi will officiate in the men’s event, Bosede Momoh will be involved in the women’s tournament.

CAFalso picked Nigerian referees Abel Baba and Ferdinand Udoh as assistant referee 1 and reserve referee respectively for the CAF Champions League group A match between Moghreb Tetouan of Morocco and Smouha FC of Egypt, billed for Tetouan on August 23.

The latest recognition is down to the capacity –building programme of the present NFF administration, which sent two batches of referees to the United Kingdom for educational purposes in December 2014 and February 2015.

Nigeria will present teams in both football tournaments of the 11th All-Africa Games, unlike the no-show that the country had at the 10thAll-Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique in 2011.

The Super Falcons, winners over Mali in the qualifiers for women’s event of the All-Africa Games, will contest against host Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire in Group A. Group B has Cameroon, Egypt, South Africa and Ghana.

In the men’s version, the Dream Team will battle Ghana, Senegal and Egypt in Group B. Group A has host Congo-Brazzaville, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso.

…Rename AWC, AYC, Others

The Confederation of African Football Executive Committee have renamed six of their continental competitions.

According to the Nigeria Football Federation, the Executive Committee will however to the names of the Africa Cup of Nations, the African Nations Championship, the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation Cup.

The competitions affected are as follows: the Africa Women Cup of Nations (formerly African Women’s Championship); Africa U-23 Cup of Nations (formerly African U-23 Championship); Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (formerly African Youth Championship);

Others are Africa U-17 Cup of Nations (formerly African U-17 Championship); Africa Beach Soccer Cup of Nations (formerly African Beach Soccer Championship) and Africa Futsal Cup of Nations (formerly African Futsal Championship).

Meanwhile, the draw for the 4th African Nations Championship scheduled for Rwanda between 16 January and 7 February, 2016, will take place in Kigali on November 18.

Nigeria will face Burkina Faso over two legs in October for a place in the championship.