Nigeria Was Not Added to the 19th Year’s AFCON Referee List
Nigerian referees have not been represented in AFCON 2025 for 19 years, and CAF’s decision to exclude them raises fresh questions about the NFF’s management and training standards.
After 19 years, Nigeria has once again been excluded from the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) list of referees chosen for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
33 center referees, 36 assistant referees, and 11 video assistant referees have been selected for preliminary training, which CAF said will take place in Cairo from November 8–13. Nevertheless, none of the listed officials are Nigerian.
When Nigeria was represented by Emmanuel Imiere in 2006, that was the last time a Nigerian referee officiated at the continental tournament. Nigeria has continuously missed CAF’s referee rosters since then, a trend that detractors have attributed to enduring problems inside the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
The ongoing exclusion has prompted a strong response from football pundits and Nigerian supporters on the social networking site X, who point the finger at what they say is systemic neglect, subpar training, and purported corruption in the referee development system.
CAF, for its part, has allegedly blamed Nigeria’s protracted exclusion on a lack of improvement in refereeing performance and adherence to international standards.
Calls for changes to Nigeria’s football administration and more funding for referee training and certification have been triggered by the development once more in an effort to get the nation back into Africa’s premier football tournament.
