Nigeria national football team fans have found out the name of the referee that will be officiating the game between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone on Sunday 18 June 2023.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) made the list of officials known on Wednesday as officials from Nigeria and Sierra Leone prepared for the technicalities of their showdown at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia. The Super Eagles will be reporting to Liberia on Thursday to prepare for their hosts, Sierra Leone, who have been waiting in the West African nation.
Camp don full…and the day is Bright! Update: 23 players in camp. Bright, Osimhen, Zaidu, Musa, Ekong, Lookman, Aribo, Iwobi, Bassey, Ajayi, Akpoguma, Omeruo, Ndidi, Iheanacho, Awoniyi, Simon, Adeleye, Sochima, Ojo, Duru, Samuel, Divine, Onyeka. #SoarSuperEagles #AFCON2023Q pic.twitter.com/dmwl2MfddU
— 🇳🇬 Super Eagles (@NGSuperEagles) June 14, 2023
CAF lists officials from Sudan, Djibouti, Togo and Gambia for upcoming Super Eagles game
Referee assessments are part of the technical preparations by teams for matches. Especially important games like the AFCON qualifiers 2023 fixtures which will determine the teams that will compete for the continent's top prize. This is because referees have their peculiarities and teams have discovered the need to understand the way a referee operates in order to have a game that does not see too many calls go against them.
AFCON Qualifiers:
Guinea-Bissau moved to the top of the group after defeating Sao Tome, 1-0.
Na why Peseiro dey shake for training today, he dey shout "No media, No media." 😄😄😄 pic.twitter.com/VLwlFtu3ee
— Adepoju Tobi Samuel 🇳🇬 (@OgaNlaMedia) June 14, 2023
Announcing the referee of every match ahead of the tie gives teams adequate time to research the referee and factor their reports into team tactics for a successful game. CAF announced the referees for the Sierra Leone-Nigeria game and the communications department of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) announced it in turn to the Nigeria football media.
Sudanese referee Mahmood Ismail is the centre referee for the match. Ismail will be joined by his compatriot Mohammed Ibrahim as assistant referee one and Djiboutian official Liban Ahmed as assistant referee two. The fourth official is Mohamed Guedi, also from Djibouti. Bakary Jammeh from Gambia is the match commissioner, while Kokou Djaoupe from Togo will be the referee assessor.
Ismail is a known face in the African refereeing scene and has a booking record of 24 yellow cards issued and no red cards.
Peseiro pays respect to Super Eagles opponents ahead of crunch AFCON qualifiers tie
Meanwhile, José Peseiro has paid his respects to the Sierra Leone national team led by John Keister. Peseiro oversaw the best game he has managed as Nigeria national team manager when the Sierra Leone team came to Nigeria in the reverse fixture. They opened the scoring and the Super Eagles fought back, with goals from Victor Osimhen and Alex Iwobi giving them all three points to take them to the top of the table, where they have been since.
Massive Attacking options available to Jose Peseiro. pic.twitter.com/MFewiJdeOm
— Sports Radio Brila FM (@Brilafm889) June 15, 2023
A win in Liberia will officially confirm Nigeria as one of the participating AFCON teams and Peseiro expects the Sierra Leonians to make it hard for his team. Speaking at a press conference, Peseiro said: “It will be a difficult game because in the last three games, we have drawn two and won one, which was in Abuja last year.
“Also, Sierra Leone has just one opportunity. They have to beat us. If they don’t, they are out. No one can say the result clearly, but we can only talk after 90 minutes will we know the result. Sierra Leone opened camp last Thursday, they started camp before us, it’s a good team. So we need to put in our best, and our best concentration and play a collective game.”
This article was most recently revised and updated 1 year ago
