AFCON 2019: Kenyan to Officiate Nigeria vs Seychelles Game in Victoria
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has appointed Kenyan referee, David Omweno to officiate the Super Eagles clash against the Pirates of Seychelles at the Stade Linte on Saturday in Victoria.
The 34-year-old Kenyan, Omweno will have as his first Assistant Referee (AR1), his compatriot Gilbert Cheruiyot, while Uganda’s Mark Ssonko will act as Assistant Referee (AR2).
Omweno was among the two referees suspended by CAF for three months in 2016 for poor performance.
The Kenyan referee was accused of ruling out a legitimate goal scored by Libya in their 1-0 loss to Tunisia in November 2016.
Nigeria are third in Group E with no point after losing 2-0 to South Africa in their opening game 14 months ago, while Libya and South Africa are joint leaders in the group with three points.
The Super Eagles are thus in dire need of a vital away win as the qualifying race in Group E intensifies for Cameroon 2019. Only the group winners are guaranteed slots at the finals.
The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations is scheduled to hold from Jan. 12 to Feb. 3 in Cameroon.
The competition will be held in June and July 2019, as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017 to move the Africa Cup of Nations from January/February to June/July for the first time. It will also be the first Africa Cup of Nations expanded from 16 to 24 teams, meaning that there will be a round 16 games.
