SAN FRANCISCO, November 23, (THEWILL) – World’s Football governing body FIFA has pre-selected two Nigerian referees to officiate at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
In all, FIFA picked a total of 156 referees and assistant referees from all over the world.
The 2023 Women’s World Cup is expected to be played in 12 cities across both countries from Monday, July 10 to Sunday, August 20, 2023.
FIFA selected Patience Ndidi Madu as one of the referees for the tournament along with seven others from Africa that included Salima Mukansanga (Rwanda), Lidya Abebe (Ethiopia), Fatou Thioune (Senegal), Maria Rivet (Mauritius), Bouchra Karboubi (Morocco), Vincentia Amedome (Togo) and Dorsaf Ganouati (Tunisia).
The other Nigerian, Mimisen Iyorhe, was selected as an assistant referee with 10 others. These others include:
Queency Victoire (Mauritius), Diana Chikotesha (Zambia), Fatiha Jermoumi (Morocco), Mary Njoroge (Kenya), Lidwine Rakotozafinoro (Madagascar), Bernadettar Kwimbira (Malawi), Fanta Kone (Mali), Carine Fomo (Cameroon), Yara Abdelfattah (Egypt).
THEWILL recalls that Madu was one of the 35 referees invited for the Elite Referees for future FIFA competitions drawn from three confederations of Confederation of African Football (CAF), Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).
They were invited to Doha, Qatar for a preparatory seminar in March this year. Madu was one of the eight women referees chosen from Africa and she was the only Nigerian in CAF’s 16-referee list. She became a FIFA referee in 2018.
Furthermore, THEWILL also recalls that as far back as 2018, when CAF released the final list of referees that were to officiate at the 11th edition of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWCON) in Ghana, Madu and Iyorhe made the cut as the only Nigerians on the officiating list.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
