Stakeholders in the Nigerian refereeing group on Thursday expressed displeasure at the failure of Nigeria’s Peter Edibi to make the final list of referees for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Edibi was one of the prospective assistant referees listed earlier by the world football governing body.
The referees were listed to officiate at the upcoming World Cup finals in Brazil and had since 2012 been undergoing preparations through organised courses and the officiating of high-profile matches.
However, on Wednesday, the FIFA Referees Committee announced a list of 91 referees, made up of 25 referee trios and eight reserve duos, with Edibi missing from the list.
But, some Nigerian referees said that they had been hopeful that Edibi would be listed so as to break the jinx of Nigeria not having a referee at the World Cup.
President of the Nigeria Referees Association, Ahmed Maude, said he could not understand what was responsible for the “last-minute disappointing news,” from FIFA.
“I don’t know what actually happened, but maybe it has to do with the team of West African countries that qualified for the World Cup. It may be because there are more West African countries among the African teams at the World Cup. So, they might have decided to pick referees from other African regions different from West Africa.
“But, whatever the criteria were, it was very disappointing because we had all hoped that Nigerian referees will be represented at the 2014 World Cup for the first time,’’ Maude said.
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