Given Nigeria’s pedigree in football, the country should not be in such predicament – Sports Minister Enoh fumes over non-listing of Nigerian referees for AFCON 2023

Nigeria’s Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh, has stated his displeasure over the non-inclusion of Nigerian referees among the match officials listed for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations that will be hosted by Cote D’Ivoire from January 13 to February 11/2024.

The 34th Africa Cup of Nations is billed to take place across five cities in Cote D’Ivoire. 

Three-time African Champions, Nigeria’s Super Eagles, topped Group A of the qualifying series to secure participation.

Speaking on the situation, an appalled Enoh said;

“Given Nigeria’s population and pedigree in football, the country should not be in such a predicament, I will hold engagements with bodies related to the matter and see how we can remedy this going forward.”

“I was duly informed that at the last AFCON (2021), Nigeria had only one assistant referee listed amongst the match officials. Two years prior, we didn’t have any centre referee too. Going into the next AFCON, we still won’t have any Nigerian official.

“I am going to interrogate this matter. We will have engagements with the NFF, the  Referees’ Association, and the League Board because we need to get to the bottom of this,” the minister reiterated.