June 4, 2015 Meanwhile Nigerian referees have been rated highly by Lim Kee-Chong, a former FIFA referee from Mauritius. He shared the information with the News Agency of Nigeria after a week-long FIFA Member Association Elite Referees Course in the country.
Kee-Chong noted that the appointment of Nigerian referees for CAF matches and other FIFA age-group international competitions was a sign of the growing development with referees in the last 12 months. He is quoted as saying “For sure, you can assess it when you see their officiating outside the country at international level. So, if they are appointed regularly, it means that their level is going high; there is an improvement for sure.
Kee Chong added “Yesterday I asked them again, do you hope to be there (FIFA World Cup) because everybody is saying Nigeria is a big country. Every time their team is going to the World Cup what about to have one referee there one day; they have to commit themselves, they can be there.’’
NAN shared that a Nigerian match official, Peter Edibi, was selected by CAF to officiate at this year’s AFCON in Equatorial Guinea.
In addition, FIFA has appointed a Nigerian referee, Jelili Ogunmuyiwa, to officiate at this year’s FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup competition slated for July in Portugal. Ogunmuyiwa officiated the final match of last month’s African Beach Soccer Championship in Seychelles, between Madagascar and Senegal, and was among only three Africans in the 24-man list for the tournament.