The Confederation of African Football has excluded Nigerian centre referees from the list of officiating referees at the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cameroon.

A list of officiating referees for the 2022 African Cup of Nations which was released shows only one Nigerian Samuel Pwadutakam as an assistant referee.

Since the 2008 AFCON tournament held in Ghana, CAF has failed to list a Nigerian centre referee.

Reacting to the exclusion of Nigerian referees in the AFCON list of officiating centre referees, the former chairman of Nigerian Referees Association, Linus Mba said “I am worried and I’ve been asking what can be done to have a full complement of Nigerian officials at the AFCON. Going to the AFCON is not a cup of tea.”

“The onus is on our referees to work hard. I also think in the future, as long as we don’t nominate people because of politics, we will get there soon. But if politics continues to be involved, we’ll continue to have problems,” he submitted.